Events overview
REWORLDING events
REWORLDING Kickoff Event
The official REWORLDING Kickoff Event took place on October 9-10, 2024, in Hasselt, marking the launch of the project with a mix of closed consortium sessions and public discussions.
The first day was dedicated to internal workshops, co-organized with the Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) LISTEN project, including Mud and Gut, an exploratory session on how design can reveal and spark discussions around soil contamination. The second day opened up to the public, featuring inspiring lectures and a debate with Michel Bastian, Studio Plastique, and project supervisors, followed by a demonstration moment by the Doctoral Candidates (DCs).
This event introduced REWORLDING as a careful and situated Participatory Design approach, focusing on the synergies between human and more-than-human worlds. Through lectures, debates, and performative presentations, participants explored how ecological challenges are experienced differently across communities and organizations, often leading to societal polarization.
The summer school as part of the reworlding program will focus on the idea of reimagination. We will be hosted by ETH Newrope and use this occasion to experience a series of pedagogical and research experiments on developing and defining approaches for reimagination.
As a summer school we will take up different roles. Going from a mode of presenting to being guests in a design studio on reworlding, experimenting with own workshop formats and participating in a three days workshop where we explore imagination as a layered and collaborative practice rather than merely as an individualized faculty that allows us to conjure 'new worlds' in the theatre of our mind.
The summer school is preceded by a lecture and conversations series on landscapes and imagination and will allow to both present own work, take time to get to know each other and collectively explore new methods and tools.
The first part of the summer school will be organized in the Design in Dialogue Lab at the ETH where for the second part of the summer school we become part of different cultural organizations in Zürich.
In collaboration with:
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “Reworlding”
The Social Pattern Recognition – SPaRe Lab of the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento
Mapping, Representing, and Visualising Ethnographic Data
9 July 2025, 2:30-6:30 PM + 10 July 2025, 10:30-12:30 AM
University of Trento, Department of Sociology and Social Research
The pre-conference workshop provides an opportunity for Ph.D. students and junior post-docs engaged in ethnographic and qualitative research to discuss their work with colleagues and senior researchers in an interdisciplinary, informal and stimulating environment.
For this conference edition, the workshop focuses on the representation of ethnographic data and analysis, including complex networks of eco-social and power relations. Qualitative research generates rich, in-depth findings, yet it often fails to synthesise, visualise and formalise them. This reduces the potential impact, circulation, and re-use —across disciplinary communities, and beyond— of these analyses. Drawing on participants’ ongoing fieldwork and data communication challenges, the workshop aims to explore modalities, techniques, and artefacts for the wider use of ethnographic findings.
For more details on registration and the selection procedure, please visit the website:
The Reworlding Spring School will take place at UHasselt, at the historic Beguinage in Hasselt (Belgium), from 4 to 8 May 2026. This school is organised by the Reworlding network, an international research and practice network that connects researchers, communities and organisations working on socio-ecological change. The network explicitly engages with more-than-human actors through participatory and design led approaches.
This five-day Spring School brings together researchers, practitioners, designers and policymakers interested in re-institutioning socio-environmental transitions, with attention to the more-than-human actors. Via the concept of re-institutioning we explore how institutions can be rethought and reshaped by engaging with everyday practices, embodied experiences, emotional and ecological landscapes, and more-than-human lifeworlds in design with and for socio-ecological transitions.
The programme starts on Monday afternoon and will close on Friday afternoon, and combines:
-
- keynote lectures
-
- thematic workshops
-
- collective reflection sessions
A detailed programme and speaker list will follow soon.
Thematic focus
We explore how re-institutioning can be understood and practised in socio-environmental transitions, including but not limited to:
-
Designing interrelations between communities and public or private institutions in domains such as farming, water, energy or labour.
-
Introducing new forms of human and more-than-human collaboration within governmental and institutional contexts, with attention to inclusivity and diversity.
-
Exploring possibilities for more-than-human governance that takes into account both human and more-than-human lifeworlds, such as bioregional approaches.
Thematic lenses
The programme is structured through six lenses developed by the Reworlding researchers. These lenses serve as invitations for multi-directional inquiries rather than fixed frameworks.
-
- Everyday resilience
-
- Embodied engagement
-
- Emotional landscapes
-
- Commoning Energy
-
- Political f(r)ictions
-
- Critical translations
Each lens will be explored through hands-on workshops and lectures. External participants are invited to join these workshops and actively contribute to the collective inquiry through their own research.
> one pager - guiding questions lenses
Practical information
-
- Duration: 5 days (Monday afternoon – Friday midday)
-
- Format: lectures, thematic workshops, collective discussions
-
- Detailed programme: published early February 2026
-
- Location: UHasselt, Beguinage in Hasselt, Belgium
Participation fee
The participation fee for the Reworlding Spring School is 250 EUR. This fee includes access to the full five day programme, daily lunches, and one collective dinner. Accommodation and travel costs are not included.
Registration applies to the entire Spring School and participation in all thematic lenses. It is not possible to register for individual days or sessions.
Application & selection
Deadline for applications: Sunday 1 February 2026
Applications are limited and need to be submitted via an online form and include:
-
- basic personal and academic information
-
- selection of one or more thematic lenses
-
- a motivation letter (max. 2 pages)
> Submit your application here
Selected participants will be notified shortly after the deadline.
Retracing lectures series
The Retracing Lecture Series is a structured program of three integrated courses, combining key lectures and workshops to explore academic skills and theoretical frameworks within reworlding. This series challenges the limitations of traditional European Participatory Design (PD) methodologies and examines how they can be expanded to better address today's complex socio-ecological challenges. By engaging diverse perspectives, we develop new ways of perceiving and acting in the world. The series is led by UL in collaboration with AAU, MAU, UH and UNITN. After completion students are rewarded with 2 ECTS.
Giving a Voice to Nature.
During the Participatory Design Conference 2024 (PDC2024), the REWORLDING workshop, titled “Giving a Voice to Nature: Participatory Design with Non-Human Stakeholders for Sustainable Development”, brought together all DCs and external researchers. Participants contributed 1,000-word pieces, serving as the foundation for building a research network and sparking discussions on reworlding.
The workshop explored how to design with non-human natural entities, challenging the traditional human-centered approach in participatory design. It addressed the often-overlooked need to involve these entities in the design process, particularly in the context of sustainable development. Through collaborative debate and reflection, participants examined new ways of integrating nature as an active stakeholder in design.
Ethics in Participatory Research and Design
Open Science in Participatory Research
This workshop explored Open Science within Participatory Design (PD), focusing on the FAIR data principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Open Science within the European framework aims to make research and data widely accessible, fostering transparency, collaboration, and inclusivity.
Participants learned how inclusive (digital) data collection and comprehensive Data Management Plans (DMPs) ensure data integrity and accessibility, enhancing research quality. In PD, involving stakeholders in data collection strengthens engagement, making the process more impactful. Through hands-on exercises and real-world case studies, participants gained practical experience, enriching research outcomes while developing essential collaboration and problem-solving skills.
Led by prof. Liesbeth Huybrechts
Reconnecting Methods Training
The Reconnecting Methods Training provides Doctoral Candidates (DCs) with valuable insights into Participatory Action Research (PAR), situated design, and co-design methods, alongside skills in academic writing, communication, and community engagement. The training focuses on participatory design, PAR, and design anthropology/ethnography, with hands-on experience in relational design using translation objects in collaboration with non-academic partners.
DCs will engage in sessions on mutual and collective learning, co-design, and prototyping, followed by workshops using the Participation Studio methodology. The program emphasizes connecting academic research with socio-environmental contexts through scientific communication and community engagement. Additionally, DCs will explore topics such as academic writing, interdisciplinary alliances, research valorisation, and public science.
PAR, ethnography and multivocality
Interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral alliances
Mutual, embodied and collective learning in PD
Codesign and Prototyping More-Than-Human Futures
Academic Writing and Communication
Research valorisation, ethics and public science
Reimagining Summer School in ETH Zurich
Expanding Learning Labs
The Reimagining Summer School focuses on co-designing spaces and environments for collective learning. Doctoral Candidates (DCs) will gain hands-on knowledge in designing spatial, infrastructural, and organizational forms for learning, while exploring the politics of design and developing participatory tools and methodologies for collaboration with diverse participants and stakeholders.