Welcome!

Designing Economic Cultures is a research project that sets out to investigate the relationship between socio-economic precarity and the production of socially and politically engaged design projects.

The fundamental question the project poses is:
how can designers, who through their work want to question and challenge the prevalent economic system, gain a satisfying degree of social and economic security without having to submit themselves to the commercial pressures of the market?  Read more ›

Construction site for non-affirmative practice

Constructive Dismantling

My Castle Is Your Castle

List of organised activities

Here a list of all the activities that were organised by the Construction site at Careof in Milan.

Capitalism and the social imaginary – seminar with Hervé Baron

In this series of encounters, run by the economic researcher Hervé Baron, we intend to propose an argument that is relatively unknown to the Italian public: the issue of the social imaginary. The argumentation will range from the general to the particular: after an initial introduction to the topic, we will see why the studies of the imaginary have developed mostly in France around Cornelius Castoriadis.

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RUN RUN RUN RUN – exhibition and lectures


Poster by Caterina Giuliani and Melissa Destino

Giovanna Zanghellini and Caterina Giuliani – two designers participating in the Construction site for non-affirmative practice – proposed RUN RUN RUN RUN, a one-week initiative that intended to analyse and question the phenomenon of contemporary socio-economic precarity. During this initiative we heard interventions by San Precario, the Carrotworkers’ Collective and Serpica Naro.

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San Precario, an introduction

San Precario is the patron saint of the precarious. San Precario is irreverent, mocking and offensive. San Precario is a creation of the precarious intelligence, a free and independent expression that does not refer to any party or union.

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Serpica Naro, an introduction

Serpica Naro is a ficticious fashion meta-brand that has been launched during the 2005 Milan Fashion Week. Serpica Naro is the anagram of San Precario. Today, Serpica Naro is licensed under the Creative Commons and the collective around it is working towards dismantling the conventional fashion industry with its exploitation of humans and nature.

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Carrotworkers’ Collective, an introduction

Two members of the Carrotworkers’ Collective, a London-based group of ex-interns, students, researchers and cultural workers, who regularly meet to think together around the conditions of free labour in contemporary societies, introduced us to their work and followed up the discussion with a workshop on the next day.

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A tavola con… – conversations over lunch with Alberto Bassi, Antonella Bulegato, Giovanni Anceschi, Stefano Maffei

During this series of informal encounters, organised by AUT and Filiera in the context of the project Quisai, different design historians, design theorists and design tutors joined the Construction site for informal discussions over lunch around the interactions between design and production in Italy.

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Cultural associations – seminar with Marta Bianchi

Marta Bianchi, project organiser at Careof, whose field of expertise is cultural management, gave us an extensive overview of the legal options for setting up a cultural association in Italy. It came out that in Italy, the new model of the “Association for Social Promotion” could actually be and interesting one for groups who intend to work mainly on non-commercial projects and to apply for public funding.

We would like to thank Marta for taking us through all these legal things.

VAT and surroundings – seminar with Dario Banfi

Dario Banfi, member of ACTA (Associazione Consulenti Terziario Avvanzato), gave us an introduction to the tax regulations for freelance workers in Italy.

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Made in Italy (behind the scene) – infographic performance by Isacco Chiaf

As a conclusion to our stay in Milan, Isacco Chiaf performed his piece Made in Italy (behind the scene), which he had been expanding and improving during the two months at Careof.

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