I’m an Associate Professor of Critical Design in the Department of Human-Centered Design at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, where I also direct the Design for Interaction masters program.
I’m generally interested in the relations between technology, culture and politics. My research explores the capacity of design to disclose, interrogate, and promote alternative social, political, and environmental futures. Rather than treating design merely as a problem-solving tool for commercial outcomes, I investigate how design futuring can engage with complex systemic challenges and promote sustainability transformations.
I received my PhD (2014) from Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication, where I was part of the Applied Communication and Technology (ACT) Lab, and have since completed a Postdoc at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. I am Fellow of the Urban Futures Studio at Utrecht University, was a Digital Futures Scholar in Residence in Royal KTH in Stockholm, and Senior Visiting Researcher in the department of design in Politecnico di Milano.
My first book, Interactive Media for Sustainability (2018), was published as part of the Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication series, and I co-edited (with Elisa Giaccardi) Rethink Design: A Vocabulary for Designing with AI (TU Delft Open, 2024). I used to edit the sustainability in (inter)action forum in the ACM's Interactions magazine, and am currently the lead author of the Vision and Imagination section in ClickNL's KEM Monitor.
You can reach me at roy [at] digitalsustainability [dot] com
2026
Barendregt, L., Bendor, R. and Van Eekelen, B.F. (2026). ‘Making ripples or waves? A critical analysis of a Dutch youth water vision’. European Journal of Futures Research 14, article 26.
Bendor, R., Murray-Rust, D. and Rehak, R. (2026). ‘Small AI: A degrowth imaginary for designing with/for artificial intelligence’. In proceedings of the Design Research Society (DRS) ’26, June 8-12, 2026, Edinburgh, UK.
Turtle, G.L., Kotowski, B., Giaccardi, E. and Bendor, R. (2026). ‘Sounding Territories: Dis/identificatory codings as relational worlding’. In proceedings of the Design Research Society (DRS) ’26, June 8-12, 2026, Edinburgh, UK.
2025
Bendor, R., Champlin, C. and Pelzer, P. (2025). ‘All hail the imagination! Expanding notions of engineering expertise in technical higher education’. In J. Goncalvez, J. Spaaij and T. Verma (eds.) Evolving Education (pp.65-71). Delft: TU Delft Open.
Turtle, G.L., Giaccardi, E. and Bendor, R. (2025). ‘Undoing Gracia: Queering the Self in the Algorithmic Borderlands’. AI & Society 41: 3649-3666.
Ianniello, A. and Bendor, R.(2025) ‘Everywhere, all at once: Speculative layering of multiple temporalities with Augmented Reality’, in proceedings of Nordes 2025: Relational Design, 6-8 August, Oslo, Norway.
Bendor, R. (2025). ‘The World, Already a Corpse’. In Chambers, J. (ed.) Utopia*Art*Politics Sessions: Experimenting with artistic practices in radical imagination and politics (pp.86-89). Utrecht: Urban Futures Studio, Community Portal @ BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Stichting Moira.
Bendor, R. (2025). ‘Sustainability imaginaries by design’. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 21(1), article #2443998.
Barendregt, L., Bendor, R., & van Eekelen, B. (2025). Teaching for Transformation: Lessons from Critical Pedagogy for Design Futures Education. Journal of Futures Studies, 30(2): 147-152.
Bendor, R. and Lupetti, M.L. (2025). ‘Teaching speculative design’. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 35(1): 403-425.
2024
Giaccardi, E. and Bendor, R. (eds., 2024). Rethink Design: A Vocabulary for Designing with AI. Delft: TU Delft Open.
Turtle, G.L. and Bendor, R. (2024). ‘Co-Predictive Relations’. In Giaccardi, E. and Bendor, R. (eds.). Rethink Design: A Vocabulary for Designing with AI (pp.29-32). Delft: TU Delft Open.
Bessai, R., Bendor, R. and Balkenende, R. (2024). ‘Designing with more-than-human temporalities’. In proceedings of the Design Research Society (DRS) ’24, June 24-28, 2024, Boston, US.
Hamm, A., Shibuya, Y., Cerratto Pargman, T., Bendor, R., Raetzsch, C., Hendawy, M., Rehak, R., Klerks, G., Schouten, B., & Hansen, N.B., (2024). ‘What means failure in Civic Tech? We need continued conversations about discontinuation’. Interactions 31(2): 34-38.
Barendregt, L., Bendor, R. and van Eekelen, B. (2024). ‘Public Participation in Futuring: A Systematic Literature Review’. Futures 158, Article 103346.
2023
Bessai, R., Bendor, R. and Balkenende, R. (2023). ‘Fit for Purpose: Four considerations of how matter becomes material’. In proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Computing Within Limits (LIMITS) ’23, June 14-15, 2023.
Hamm, A., Shibuya, Y., Cerratto Pargman, T., Bendor, R., Brodersen Hansen, N., Raetzsch, C., Shoji, M., Bieber, C., Hendawy, M., Klerks, G. and Schouten, B. (2023). Failed yet successful: Learning from discontinued civic tech initiatives. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (article no. 348). ACM.
2022
Turtle, G.L., Guerrero Millan, C., Özçetin, S., Patil, M., and Bendor, R. (2022) Sensing in the wild: A DCODE DRS Lab exploring a more-than-human approach to distributed urban sensing, in Lockton, D., Lloyd, P., Lenzi, S. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June – 3 July, Bilbao, Spain.
Bendor, R. (2022). ‘Beyond the design code: Critical design and democratic rationalizations,’ in D. Cressman (ed.) The Necessity of Critique: Andrew Feenberg and the Philosophy of Technology (pp. 89-106). Cham: Springer.
Farias, P.G., Bendor, R. & van Eekelen, B. (2022). ‘Social dreaming together: A critical exploration of participatory speculative design’. In proceedings of Participatory Design Conference (PDC) ’22 (vol.2), August 19-September 2, 2022, Newcastle, UK. ACM.
2021
Bendor, R. (2021). Value Replacement Therapy: Imagining urban technologies otherwise. In E. Rijshouwer & L. van Zoonen (Eds.), Speculative Design Methods for Citizen Engagement in Smart Cities Research (pp. 63-73). Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for BOLD Cities.
Goodwill, M., Bendor, R. & van der Bijl-Brouwer, M. (2021). ‘Beyond good intentions: Towards a power literacy framework for service designers’. International Journal of Design 15(3): 45-59.
Bendor, R., L. Nathan, M.L. Mauriello and O. Bates (2021). ‘“Everything in the forest is the forest”: A Decade of the Sustainability in (Inter)Action forum’. Interactions 28(4): 65-67.
Bendor, R. (2021). ‘Against Future Proofing’. Volume no. 59: 65-67.
Bendor, R. (2021). ‘Transition or Transformation? The Mediated Meanings of Sustainability,’ in F. Weder, L. Krainer & M. Karmasin (eds.) The Sustainability Communication Reader. A Reflective Compendium (pp. 71-87). Cham: Springer.
Bendor, R., Eriksson, E. and Pargman, D. (2021) Looking Backward to the Future: On past-facing approaches to futuring. Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Futures Studies 125, article 102666.
2020
Bendor, R. (2020). ‘Speculative Design,’ in A. van Boeijen, j. Daalhuizen & J. Zijlstra (eds.) Delft Design Guide: Perspectives-Models-Approaches-Methods (revised edition) (pp. 30-31). Amsterdam: BiS Publishers.
Bendor, R. (2020). ‘Trust me, I’m a designer’, in Up Close and Personal (Design United eMagazine for Dutch Design Week, 2020).
2019
Lupetti, M. L., Bendor, R., & Giaccardi, E. (2019). Robot citizenship: a design perspective. In Proceedings of DeSForm’19, October 9-11, 2019, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Kihara, T., R. Bendor and D. Lomas (2019). ‘Designing an Escape Room in the City for Public Engagement with AI-enhanced Surveillance’. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (paper no. LBW1618). ACM.
Bates, O., K. New, S. Mitchell-Finnigan, M.L. Mauriello, C. Remy, R. Bendor, S. Mann, S. Chopra, A.K. Clear, and C. Preist (2019). ‘Towards a Responsible Innovation Agenda for HCI’. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (paper no. W24).
Sadowski, J. and R. Bendor (2019). ‘Selling Smartness: Corporate Narratives and the Smart City as a Sociotechnical Imaginary’. Science, Technology, & Human Values 44(3): 540-563.
2018
Bendor, R. (2018). Interactive Media for Sustainability. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bendor, R., A. van der Helm and T. Jaskiewicz (eds.) (2018). A Spectrum of Possibilities: A Catalog of Tools for Urban Citizenship in the Not-So-Far Future. Delft: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology.
Bendor, R. (2018). ‘Sustainability, Hope, and Designerly Action in the Anthropocene’. Interactions 25(3): 82-84.
Bendor, R. (2018). ‘Interaction design for sustainability futures: Towards worldmaking interactions,’ in M. Hazas & L. Nathan (eds.) Digital Technology and Sustainability: Engaging the Paradox (pp. 205-216). London & NY: Routledge.
2017
Bendor, R. (2017). ‘Interactive World Disclosure (or, an Interface is not a Hammer),’ in T. Markham & S. Rodgers (eds.) Conditions of Mediation: Phenomenological Approaches to Media (pp. 211-221). New York: Peter Lang.
Bendor, R., D. Maggs, R. Peake, J. Robinson and S. Williams. (2017). ‘The imaginary worlds of sustainability: Observations from an interactive art installation. Ecology and Society 22(2), article 17.
2016 and earlier
Bendor, R. (2016). ‘Mashnotes,’ in E. Gordon & P. Milhailidis (eds.) Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice (pp. 321-326). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vervoort, J.M., R. Bendor, A. Kelliher, O. Strik and A. Helfgott. (2015). ‘Scenarios and the Art of Worldmaking’. Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Futures Studies 74: 62-70.
Bendor, R., J. Anacleto, D. Facey, S. Fels, T. Herron, D. Maggs, R. Peake, J. Robinson, M. Robinson, J. Salter, S. Sheppard, O. Vattanawong, A. Wang and S. Williams (2015). ‘Sustainability in an Imaginary World.’ Interactions 22(5): 54-57.
Bendor, R. and N. Thomas (2014). ‘Edgerank,’ in K. Harvey (ed.) Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics (pp. 434-435). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Silberman, M. Six, B. Knowles, L. Nathan, R. Bendor, A. Clear, M. Hakansson, T. Dilahunt and J. Mankoff (2014). ‘Next Steps for Sustainable HCI.’ Interactions 21(5): 66-69.
Bendor, R. (2014). ‘Designing Interactive Ethical Spectacles for Sustainability’. Position paper written for the SIGCHI workshop on HCI & Sustainability, CHI 2014.
Bendor, R. (2013). New Media and the Turn to Experience in Environmental Communication (PhD dissertation).
Bendor, R. (2013). ‘The role of experience in the Critical Theory of Technology.’ Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 17(1): 47-71.
Bendor, R., S. Haas Lyons and J. Robinson (2012). ‘What’s There Not to ‘like’? The Technical Affordances of Sustainability Deliberations on Facebook.’ Journal of E-Democracy and Open Government 4(1): 67-88.
Bendor, R. (2012). ‘Analytic and Deictic Approaches to the Design of Sustainability Decision-Making Tools.’ Proceedings of iConference ‘12, Toronto, Canada, pp.215-222.
Landesman, O. and R. Bendor (2011). ‘Animated Recollection and Spectatorial Experience in Waltz with Bashir.’ Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal 6(3): 313-330.
Bendor, R. (2007). ‘On Cannibalists and Sociolinguistics: Cultural Cannibalism as a Critical Theory of Hybridity,’ in E. Anchimbe (ed.) Linguistic Identities in Postcolonial Multilingual Spaces (pp. 265-284). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Bendor, R. (2006). ‘Digesting Globalization: Demarcation, Hybridization and Power.’ TRANS: Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften (no.16).
Bendor, R. (2006). Review of ‘Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power.’ Canadian Journal of Communication 31(3): 770-772.
October 2026
Laura Barendregt successfully defended her dissertation, Futures For All: From Participatory Futuring to Critical Futurities. Laura's work was supervised by Bregje van Eeklen, Sylvia Pont, and myself.
September 2026
I will be spending Sept.-Dec. In Milano as a Senior Visiting Researcher in the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
June 2026
Grace Turtle successfully defended their dissertation, Queering AI x Designing for co-predictive relations. Grace's work was supervised by Elisa Giaccardi, Johan Redstrom, and myself.
June 2026
Riel Bessai successfully defended his dissertation, The Carbon Commons: Design Practice for a Post-Growth Society. Riel's work was supervised by Ruud Balkenende, and myself.
January 2026
CareVision was awarded an NWO KIC-Values in Transition Grant (€2.45M) and will run through 2030.