Y. Akama, A. Light, T. Kamihira

Full Papers

Yoko Akama is Associate Professor in the School of Design, RMIT University, Australia. Her practice is shaped by various Japanese philosophies of between-ness and mindfulness, to consider how plural futures can be designed together. She is a recipient of several national and international awards for collaborative work with self-determining Indigenous nations and regional communities preparing for disaster. Current works include a co-authored book on Uncertainty and Possibility (2018) by Bloomsbury, and co-leading Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific network (http://desiap.org/).

Ann Light is Professor of Design and Creative Technology, University of Sussex, UK, and Professor of Interaction Design, Social Change and Sustainability, Malmo University, Sweden. She is a qualitative researcher specializing in design for social wellbeing, participatory design and social innovation, with a particular interest in transformative creative practice for socio-ecological futures. She also studies how grassroots organizations use design to shape their environments. She has worked with arts and neighbourhood organizations and marginalized groups on five continents. She brings professional experience from the commercial interaction design sector and had a stint as drama teacher and journalist before becoming an academic. 

Takahito Kamihira is a Designer, Design Researcher, and Design Educator with interests in Co-Design and Design Anthropology. He is a professor and leads the design program at School of Network and Information, Senshu University, Japan. In 2015-16, he studied Scandinavian Co-Design as a visiting researcher at IT University of Copenhagen. He is engaged in research with the purpose of facilitating ways for others to utilize creative design. He also works with companies and government agencies to contribute his experience and skills, and sometimes practices design as a partner of a service design agency ACTANT.