Becomings of a Participatory Design Commoner. Reflections on the relationality at the intersection of designing and commoning

"This exploratory paper speculates on what it takes to become a participatory design commoner starting from the position of a professional designer engaged with commons and commoning. By taking stock from three thematic workshops, we organized and facilitated over the past couple years for design practitioners and scholars, this paper reflects on the ontological aspect of relationality in design practices and commoning practices and how they intersect. Two intersections are explored in depth: first, relational ways of being in commons and co-becoming(s) of a participatory design commoner by drawing our attention to situated social practices that take care of these relations, and second, the intrinsic relationality of designing together and, thus, becoming a collective design body that designs as a single yet multifarious entity. Through these explorations we conceptualize the becoming(s) of a participatory design commoner and seek to probe what relational qualities are crafted in this process."