Design & Solidarity (Columbia University Press, 2023) is a book that explores the power of design, art, and architecture in shaping emergent forms of mutualism, fulfilling their promise of solidarity, and ensuring that these values endure. The book emerges from the conversations led by the book’s authors — architect Rafi Segal (MIT) and artist Marisa Morán Jahn (Parsons/The New School) — dialoguing with leading thinkers including social movement leader Ai-jen Poo, political philosopher Michael Hardt, platform cooperatives founding co-director Trebor Scholz, design anthropologist Arturo Escobar, economist and Africana scholar Jessica Gordon Nembhard, futurist Greg Lindsay, and entrepreneur Mercedes Bidart.
Cover art and layout design by Marisa Morán Jahn.
“Design & Solidarity is a field guide for rebuilding public life from the bottom up.” — Ellen Lupton, Curator Emerita, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City; author of Design Is Storytelling.
“Concise, rich, and cross-disciplinary, Design & Solidarity offers essential insights on how art, architecture, and design can fundamentally re-imagine how we will live together.” — Hashim Sarkis, Dean, MIT School of Architecture and Planning; Curator, 2021 Venice Biennale Architettura
“Design & Solidarity is a must read for anyone who cares about care, mutuality, solidarity, collaboration, and capitalist alternatives. The conversations, essays, and pictures move from innovative theory to inspiring practice, all in a small and readable package. I will be carrying it with me.” — Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America; Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Book Launches
In these book launches, artist Marisa Morán Jahn and architect Rafi Segal — along with book contributors and leading thinkers/designers — explored what it means to design spaces for — and of — solidarity. They ask, how does solidarity inform design, and how can design enable new forms of solidarity to emerge? How can design visibilize and stabilize the complex economies that comprise our everyday lives?
New York City: Mon March 7, 2023
Presented by The New School
Authors Rafi Segal and Marisa Morán Jahn in conversation with Michael Hardt, Political Philosopher; Co-Author, Empire; Greg Lindsay, futurist. Remarks by Carin Kuoni, Director, and Eriola Pira, Curator, Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School; Cynthia Jaramillo Lawson, Dean, School of Design Strategies; Koray Caliskan, Economic Sociologist, Parsons.
Music by Sam Mejias, Musician; Parsons/The New School
Catering by Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center
Chicago, IL: Mon April 10, 2023
Presented by The National Public Housing Museum and Haymarket House
Co-presented by The Center for Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago, the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago
Authors Rafi Segal and Marisa Morán Jahn in conversation with Ai-Jen Poo, Co-Founder, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Ernst Valery, developer and founder, Aequo Foundation. Remarks: Lisa Lee Yun, Curator; Scholar; Executive Director, National Public Housing Museum; Moderator: Iván Arenas, Institute for Research on Race & Public Policy, The University of Illinois at Chicago
Cambridge, MA: Thurs April 20, 2023
Presented by MIT School of Architecture
Authors Rafi Segal and Marisa Morán Jahn in conversation with Arturo Escobar, Design Anthropologist; Author, Designs for the Pluriverse; Greg Lindsay, futurist; Mercedes Bidart, Co-Founder, Quipu; Rashin Fahandej, Multimedia Artist, Filmmaker. Remarks by Jules Sievert, Artistic Director, NuLawLab, Northeastern University and Sarah Wolozin, Director of MIT OpenDocLab. Moderated by Ana Miljacki, Critic, Curator, Director, Architecture and Urbanism Section, MIT
All photos by Marc Parroquín, 2023.
