the fittest” from strictly violent competition, to instead highlight evolution through
close cooperation and the merging of different species. This means that some spe-
cies evolve in close symbiosis rather than rivalry. This concept similar to mutualism
and explores special biologic niches where cooperation challenges competition as
the driving force of evolution. If we apply this concept to design the aim of the
designer not primarily to be a strong auteur but to find hybrid forms and explore
the niches of symbiosis, where small molecular evolutions trigger synergies and
cooperation, boosting small changes of engagement among participants and stake-
holders.
&So what we have seen here is the emergence of a highly composite designer role in
a mix of designer, artist, producer, manager, and social development worker. Even-
tually even as a therapist or coach. From a perspective of traditional design, some
would argue that this is a role without classic craft skills and more like a project
leader without a feeling for the real material. For many it could seem like role far
from the skilled studio craftsman. However, I will argue the opposite. It is a role
that goes back to specialized craft skills.
According to sociologist Richard Sennett (2006) we live in a time of a new capital-
ism, a system feeding on speed, flexibility, mobility. Long hours but short commit-
ments. Long service earns no respect. Promising potential is celebrated rather than
past performance.The emerging social order militates against the ideal of craftsmanship, that is, learning
to do just one thing really well; such commitment can often prove economically
destructive. In place of craftsmanship, modern culture advances an idea of meritoc-
racy which celebrates potential ability rather than past achievement. (Sennett 2006:
4)Instead of staying at one place or one field, we should move quickly between oc-
cupations and promising new possibilities, rather than explore ones own craft.
This is a deceitful combination of convenience and individual choice with that of
a work logic dominating our whole society where everything ”solid melts into air”.
This is what another sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman, would call a ”liquid” society
and working climate (Bauman 2000, 2007).
Following this “liquid” logic we could easily dismiss new forms of interdisciplinary
work. It would seem like yet another consultant work, lacking a real sense of crafts-
manship as it transgresses material and social borders. However, I would argue,
there is indeed craftsmanship even in an interdisciplinary role, and not only a so-
cial craft of ”working with people”, but a true commitment to the connection be-
tween the material and the changing role of a designer working with social reor-
ganization.
One side of this craft is the forming of arenas where the learning of skills is the
predominant practice. This can be a hands-on workshop where craft skills are test-
ed, repurposed, and even ”misused”, into addressing new issues. This requires both
an understanding of craftsmanship and skill as well as tools for engaging people.
Here the craftsman is conceptual producer, organizer, and facilitator as well as
teacher and inspirational master crafter.
The main purpose of such practices is both the advancement of skills and craft, but
also of struggling against the contemporary ”spectre of uselessness” (Sennett 2006),The evolution of life has, according
to biologist Lynn Margulis, depended
on the symbiosis of simple organisms
through successive mergers of cells into
more complex forms of life. This coopera-
tive combination of basic abilities, which
in turn give birth to higher forms of life
with enhanced capacities, is called symbio-
genesis. (Margulis 1998; Capra 1996)