Functional Diversity as a Politics of Design?

Abstract

This article is an inquiry into the activism around ‘functional diversity’ after the public square occupations of the Spanish 15-M movement; and, more specifically, how, in them, ‘functional diversity’ developed into a repertoire for the politicisation of design (notably, the market of technical aids and accessible environments created according to the social model of disability). To underpin the particular reading of the politics of design —in the sense developed by political philosopher Jacques Ranciere— that appears there, I will describe a small collaborative project put together by the Barcelona-based open design collective En torno a la silla.