Milan Symposium
15-16 June 2026 – Milan, Italy
Hosted by Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)
Location: Polimi, Bovisa Campus, via Durando, Milano, Italy
Chairs: Prof Marzia Mortati (Department of Design, Polimi) and Prof Lucy Kimbell (Central Saint Martins, UAL).
Designing Democratic Transitions: Research, Practice and Infrastructures for Change
Achieving sustainable transitions is no longer only a technical or environmental challenge: it is fundamentally a democratic one. Across Europe and beyond, governments, institutions, businesses and civil society organisations are experimenting with new ways to engage publics, negotiate conflict and reconfigure socio-technical systems in response to climate and sustainability challenges. Design has become increasingly visible in this landscape, mobilised for participation, experimentation, visualisation, prototyping and sensemaking. Yet this growing role also raises critical questions about power, legitimacy, inclusion and the infrastructures through which design research and practice are enacted.
Organised as part of CoDesign4Transitions, this symposium brings together researchers, doctoral candidates, practitioners and institutional actors working at the intersection of democratic design and sustainable transitions. It provides a space to reflect on how democratic design is being practised and researched today, where it is taking place, and under what conditions it can meaningfully contribute to just and sustainable futures.
Rather than presenting design as a neutral problem-solving activity, the symposium foregrounds design as a situated, political and provisional practice. Contributions will explore themes such as mission-oriented innovation, experimentation in public and organisational contexts, the materialisation and visualisation of complex issues, and the role of design research in shaping practices, institutions and forms of governance. Attention will be paid both to successes and to tensions, limits and unintended consequences.
The symposium also serves as a collective moment of sensemaking for the CoDesign4Transitions doctoral network, creating dialogue between early-stage research, established scholarship and practice-based insights. By bringing multiple voices and perspectives into conversation, the event aims to advance understanding of democratic design not as a fixed method, but as an evolving field of inquiry and action embedded in wider research and innovation ecosystems.
Who should attend
- Doctoral researchers in design, sustainable transitions, political science and related fields
- Practitioners working in systemic innovation, sustainability transitions, democratic innovation, policy innovation and design
- Academic researchers in design, sustainable transitions, political science and related fields
