Critical Jugaad: A Pluriversal Approach to Design

Design, however critical, does not emerge exclusively in closed studios of designers or classrooms, it happens at sites of everyday struggle to survive, to resist and to subvert. To acknowledge such diverse perspectives this presentation explores and analyzes the ingenious making practices from the Global South, known as “jugaad,” a Hindi word for making, making-do and survival in the face of scarcity of resources. This practice of jugaad is often symbolized by a make-do solution using found objects; however, that is a limitation of its understanding in western references. Jugaad is a state of mind, a way of critical yet collective thinking, which is a legitimate informal code of living in a society where resources are limited for the marginalized. Often jugaad does not get the recognition it deserves as a designerly practice, as it is often antithetical to the western colonial foundations of design. There is an imminent need to challenge the Eurocentric narratives in design and introduce an alternative that considers pluriversal perspectives (Mignolo, 2011; Escobar, 2012). This presentation introduces the term “critical jugaad” (Butoliya, 2018) as a decolonizing methodology through various modes of representation, discourse, and practice, in particular at the intersection of the Global South and critical design. This presentation aims to answer the question of how do we move beyond a western logic of criticality in design through critical jugaad that considers pluriversal perspectives that engage with deeper social, cultural, political and economic conditions of practices emerging from the marginal contexts of the Global South.