Bridging Boundaries: Unveiling Bourdieu’s “Thinking Tools” in Design Interventions with Youth

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This paper explores the integration of Pierre Bourdieu’s “thinking tools” – habitus, field, capital, and practice – into design interventions aimed at fostering social and cultural transformation, particularly in the context of youth engagement. By applying a “Bourdieusian” framework, the paper aims to inspire to a more reflexive and inclusive design practice that addresses power dynamics, social inequalities, and sustainability issues. The study involves exploring the design approaches personas and future scenarios to understand how they can be utilized to address factors such as gender, functional abilities, ethnicity, and social class. The findings suggest that using Bourdieu’s framework in design helps to create more inclusive and relevant solutions by recognizing and valuing diversity. This can enable designers to move beyond superficial user engagement, ensuring that design solutions are both innovative and socially equitable. This paper concludes that a reflexive design culture, informed by “Bourdieusian” concepts, can bridge boundaries and support plurality in social and cultural transformations. By involving young people in exploring critical current and future scenarios, the research highlights the potential of design to dismantle existing inequalities and promote an inclusive and sustainable future.