Ulises Navarro Aguiar is Senior Lecturer in Design at HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design, a researcher affiliated to the Business & Design Lab, and a member of the research collective Origens. With a background in Industrial Design from Tecnológico de Monterrey, a graduate degree in Design Management from the University of Salford and KEDGE Design School, and a previous career in Service Design, Ulises received his PhD from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in 2017, having carried out his doctoral research at Volvo Group as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow within DESMA.

At the crossroads of organization studies, design studies and STS-infused economic sociology, his work deals with different topics around strategic design, (post-)critical design, and the cultural economy of design. Conceptually, it draws on approaches inspired by pragmatism and (post-)actor-network theory. At HDK-Valand, he also leads the research cluster “Economies: Organizing, Valuating and Working” which assembles different projects and initiatives weaving artistic and design research with cultural inquiry into “the economy.” He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cultural Economy.

Alongside his research and teaching work at HDK-Valand, he has conducted workshops and delivered lectures/talks at a number of institutions including ITU Copenhagen, Clermont School of Business, CENTRO, CEDIM, Chalmers University of Technology, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Strate School of Design, and Parsons School of Design.

///Selected Publications///

From visioning to crafting futures? Surveying the expanding literature on future making (Futures)

The design-ification of future making: Uncertainty and divination in contemporary business discourse (Journal of Cultural Economy)

“What is design worth?” Narrating the assetization of design (Valuation Studies)

Design beyond the human world of management and organizations: Towards a cosmology for the Anthropocene (Proceedings of DRS Bilbao 2022)

Design thinking as sensemaking: Developing a pragmatist theory of practice to (re)introduce sensibility (Journal of Product Innovation Management, Thomas P. Hustad Best Paper Award 2023)

Translating ‘New Compactism’, circulation of knowledge and local mutations: Copenhagen’s Sydhavn as a case study (International Planning Studies)

A number is worth more than a thousand pictures: The case of designers’ cynical resistance through quantification (ephemera: theory and politics in organization)

Negotiating the value(s) of design(ing): An organisational inquiry (PhD thesis)

Design strategy: Towards a post-rational, practice-based perspective (Swedish Design Research Journal)

///Contact///

ulises [dot] navarro [dot] aguiar [at] gu [dot] se
@ulissess.bsky.social