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I Believe, I Learn-I Unlearn, I Listen

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Disanar: A Conceptual Approach from Transition Design and Healing

This article proposes the concept of disanar (design as healing) as a critical dialogue between the framework of Transition Design and healing practices understood as ecologies of care. It argues that wounds—colonial and planetary—can become fertile territories from which to imagine dignified futures, especially in contexts of the Global South...

Latest Publication

Disanar: A Conceptual Approach from Transition Design and Healing

This article proposes the concept of disanar (design as healing) as a critical dialogue between the framework of Transition Design and healing practices understood as ecologies of care. It argues that wounds—colonial and planetary—can become fertile territories from which to imagine dignified futures, especially in contexts of the Global South. Drawing on a conceptual, reflective, and autoethnographic methodology, the article explores how Transition Design can open itself to community-based and more-than-human knowledges that understand healing as a political-spiritual act of reweaving bonds. It maps healing across its intertwined dimensions—regeneration, reparation, restoration, and relational justice—through the mapping of concrete practices...

Check out all my papers

where I explore design, decolonization, and affective pedagogies.

Circulo degradado amarillo

Year: 2019

Author: Valentina Alcalde

This research was carried out in Usuy, a town in southern Senegal, cooperating with the NGO Dexde (Design for development) and the Kalamissoo organization, a group of artisan women. During the time that I was living there, one of my biggest challenges was taking pictures. While trying to be respectful, I was afraid to be part of the community and show myself in the territory, which implied unraveling and allowing myself to be. 

Pink Poppy Flowers

Design Decolonization Workshops: Tools for Reflecting on Plural Designs

Year: 2025
Author: Valentina Alcalde

This article explores the use of workshops as pedagogical tools for critically reflecting on design practices from a decolonial perspective. Through participatory methodologies, the work proposes exercises and activities that challenge the colonial assumptions present in contemporary design and make space for multiple ways of knowing, creating, and designing.

Pink Poppy Flowers

​Unweaving-Being: Unlearning Design

Year: 2025

Author: Valentina Alcalde

This article offers a reflection on “unlearning” in design, drawing on experiences rooted in artisanal and community contexts. Through a conversation between the authors, the text explores how design practices can be challenged and transformed through emotions, the body, and the local environment.

Valentina Alcalde (8).png

Allowing oneself to be moved: affectivity in alternative designs

Year: 2022

Author: Valentina Alcalde

Drawing on my experience living in Usuy, this text brings together some of the conclusions and reflections I present in my thesis, focusing on two principles: designing life from the heart and weaving together to live. These reflections have continued to resonate in my life after completing my thesis, shaped by my experiences with biodanza and Buddhism. Thus, this article also captures what I have continued to weave into my life and the lives of others.

Circulo degradado verde

Year: 2019

Author: Valentina Alcalde

This research was carried out in Usuy, a town in southern Senegal, cooperating with the NGO Dexde (Design for development) and the Kalamissoo organization, a group of artisan women. During the time that I was living there, one of my biggest challenges was taking pictures. While trying to be respectful, I was afraid to be part of the community and show myself in the territory, which implied unraveling and allowing myself to be. 

Valentina Alcalde (4).png

Year: 2019

Author: Valentina Alcalde

This research was carried out in Usuy, a town in southern Senegal, cooperating with the NGO Dexde (Design for development) and the Kalamissoo organization, a group of artisan women. During the time that I was living there, one of my biggest challenges was taking pictures. While trying to be respectful, I was afraid to be part of the community and show myself in the territory, which implied unraveling and allowing myself to be. 

Valentina Alcalde (3).png

Year: 2019

Author: Valentina Alcalde

This research was carried out in Usuy, a town in southern Senegal, cooperating with the NGO Dexde (Design for development) and the Kalamissoo organization, a group of artisan women. During the time that I was living there, one of my biggest challenges was taking pictures. While trying to be respectful, I was afraid to be part of the community and show myself in the territory, which implied unraveling and allowing myself to be. 

Valentina Alcalde (9).png

Year: 2019

Author: Valentina Alcalde

This research was carried out in Usuy, a town in southern Senegal, cooperating with the NGO Dexde (Design for development) and the Kalamissoo organization, a group of artisan women. During the time that I was living there, one of my biggest challenges was taking pictures. While trying to be respectful, I was afraid to be part of the community and show myself in the territory, which implied unraveling and allowing myself to be. 

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