Radical interdependence on a neighborhood scale. Raising awareness among children about human and more-than-human entanglements.

The massive environmental and social emergency we are experiencing in recent years is deeply rooted in an anthropocentric and western vision of the world which does not consider those other agents that compose our planet. These multi-levels crisis sheds an even brighter light on the relationship between human and more-than-human agents and is particularly evident in those urban contexts in which human-processes, clashing with more-than-human ecosystems, try to reduce the latter to energetic, health, and aesthetic factors. While anthropologists and philosophers are searching for new paradigms, designers must explore these theoretical thoughts and translate them into action. Designing ways of adapting in this ever-changing world is a forced choice we can no longer postpone. In this framework, there is an emerging need to investigate urban context and its features to imagine new practices and solutions to go beyond the Anthropocene. Neighborhood communities are peculiar ecosystems inhabited by different actors (both human and more-than-human) with whom co-design from a bottom-up perspective. This is the case of Nolo, a neighborhood in the city of Milan characterized by a proactive community that has been fostered by the Polimi DESIS Lab - the research lab the authors belong to - to imagine social cohesion and innovation interventions triggered by tailored-made Participatory Design (PD) activities. PD here plays an important role in activating, sustaining, and orienting practices and processes of change, with the aim of disarticulating polarizations and co-designing shared solutions to face social and environmental issues. In this process – currently undergoing - specific attention is paid to address various points of view from the marginalized community of the neighborhood such as immigrants, the elderly, citizens with physical and cognitive impairment, children but also those agents coming from the more-than-human realm like plants, insects and others. In this framework, the paper provides both the theoretical background that support the project and a broad description of one of the activities developed to include the point of view of the children. By referring to the concept of citizen scientists, the authors designed and interactive and transmedia storytelling activity to involve children from the neighborhood in an awareness-raising workshop to highlight the current social and environmental emergencies, generate a process of empowerment/community infrastructuring and foster the “radical interdependence” (Escobar, 2018) by caring for the human/more-than-human entanglements.