Design Principles For Co-creating Feminist Imaginaries

This paper advocates for the potential of feminist participatory practices to create conditions for inclusive and equitable futures. It addresses the need to design for transformative feminist futures and challenges normative innovation spaces. The authors reflect on their experiences organising two feminist hackathons, emphasising intersectionality, equity, and collaboration. They present 11 design principles that guided their efforts, highlighting the importance of centring local grassroots organisations. The paper discusses the potential of these design principles as tools for community engagement, nurturing collective imagination, and normalising feminist practices in collaborative spaces. It emphasises the importance of moving from embodied knowledge to embodying knowledge and integrating values and experiences into the infrastructure of innovation events. The authors acknowledge the challenges in operationalising principles, such as valuing labour and expertise, and raise questions about commitment and responsibility in inclusive, feminist events. This work contributes to the discourse on designing conditions for co-creating feminist imaginaries.