Civic City Cahier 3: Distributed Agency, Design’s Potentiality

Tom Holert intends to reframe (and imagine) design in post-capitalist terms. By tracing the appearance of the term ‘design’ in contemporary critical theory, he develops an optimistic micropolitical approach, which tries to go beyond well-rehearsed figures of critique; namely, those who accuse design of being complicit with capitalist commodification and, ultimately, exploitation. With the help of a ‘weak theory’ built upon small-scale endeavours of networked solidarity, this text argues for design’s microprocessual capacity to engage with the local and the particular.


The Civic City Cahier series intends to provide material for a critical discussion about the role of design for a new social city. It publishes short monographic texts by authors who specialise in urban and design theory and practice.