How to talk of and evaluate relationality in design research and practice?

The damaged and fragmented world is calling for care, hope, and imaginative ways of nurturing dialogues. We need alternative pathways, reflexivity and collective engagements to meet this need. Designers and other creative practitioners are increasingly applying experimental, relational, experiential and participatory approaches to facilitate collaboration, social change and imaginative world-making. Such approaches build on understandings that go beyond rational thinking and involve emotional and personal aspects. To advance these practices with arguments for their relevance, and to develop collective reflexivity, we need ways to talk of and evaluate the relationalities we seek to enact. In this workshop, we engage with this challenging practice by introducing evaluation dimensions, and reflect on how they address relationality in design research projects and design practices. The workshop activities draw from research findings of the EU-funded CreaTures project that explored how creative practices can stimulate action towards socially and ecologically sustainable futures.