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Toward an ecology of imagination in Benwell

Lookup NU author(s): Ivan Pecorari, Dr Clara CrivellaroORCiD, Dr Usue Ruiz AranaORCiD, Dr Ahmed KharrufaORCiD, Dr Vasilis VlachokyriakosORCiD

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Abstract

© 2026, Design Research Society. All rights reserved.This paper investigates the emergence of imagination as a participatory ecological process among children and adolescents in a deprived post-industrial area of Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Responding to ongoing debates about representation and agency in More-than-Human design, we advance an ecology of imagination as a theoretical framework. We situate imagination as a dynamic, evolving network of relations among diverse and ephemeral spatial-temporal actors. Drawing on a summer of ethnographic fieldwork, the paper analyses three examples of imaginative play to illustrate how spatial, material, and affective interactions generate conditions for collective creative play between humans and non-humans. The discussion explores imagination as an ecological, transformative and distributed capacity that reconfigures relations between people, place, and environment. In conclusion, the paper articulates implications for More-than-Human design practice, advocating situated, playful approaches to support the envisioning and inhabiting of more just and sustainable futures.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Pecorari I, Crivellaro C, Ruiz Arana U, Kharrufa A, Vlachokyriakos V

Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

Publication status: Published

Conference Name: DRS2026: Edinburgh

Year of Conference: 2026

Online publication date: 12/06/2026

Acceptance date: 08/06/2026

Publisher: Design Research Society

URL: https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1904

DOI: 10.21606/drs.2026.1904

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