Politics of the Everyday

Many of us feel powerless to resolve problems in our own lives and in the life of our community. Social and political problems such as affordable housing, immigration, and regenerating economies in decline affect us all, but in the absence of a clear pathway many people seek simplistic answers in populist, racist politics. Ezio Manzini puts forward a plan to improve our individual lives and those of our communities by means of a collaborative, democratic design practice. Drawing on precedents of innovative projects and practices that have successfully used design thinking to address social challenges, Manzini argues that the very existence of these examples indicates the real possibility of changing the rules of the game: of acting politically on everyday life, not by demanding something, but by putting into practice new ways of doing things.