Abstract
This article aims to define a political role for design that emphasizes its social, cultural, and political aspects. Specifically, it promotes a role that extends beyond functionalism, challenging the neoliberal system and shaping urban regeneration processes in cities. Starting with an overview of neoliberalism and its effects on daily life, the article highlights participatory urban transformation as spaces where design can adopt a more ethical and radical role.
It shares experiments and insights from practice and stresses the need for a new approach to participatory design. This approach should focus not only on the functionality of participatory infrastructure but also on collecting, organizing, and maintaining visibility of the networks of knowledge and relationships created by
participatory urban planning. The article particularly suggests collaboration among communication design, participatory planning, and grounded research to emphasize the importance of valuing these processes' legacy and, through that, developing a knowledge framework to counteract the adverse effects of exploiting human, creative, social, cultural, and economic capital often seen in neoliberalism.