Designing Local Economies Around Tribal Epistemology
Ranchi, Jharkhand
2–4 April 2026
25 Participants • 5 Labs • Limited Seats
The TDF Epistemic Design Lab – Ranchi is a working Lab, not a conference, showcase, or bootcamp. It is designed for serious practitioners committed to designing local economies from within tribal epistemology.
Jharkhand is home to some of India’s richest tribal knowledge systems – rooted in land, language, food, architecture, oral traditions and sacred geography. Yet these systems are still routinely excluded from economic and technological decision-making, or included only as extractable content.
The Ranchi Lab creates a space where tribal knowledge governs economic imagination and where technology is treated as an enabling layer, accountable to authorship, consent, community governance and cultural sovereignty.
Lab Structure
- 5 Epistemic Labs
- 5 participants per Lab
- 25 participants total
- One collective White Paper emerging from Ranchi
Lab Verticals
Participants will apply to one primary Lab:
- Storytelling × Technology
- Food Systems × Technology
- Architecture & Planning × Technology
- Oral Traditions × Technology
- Tourism × Technology
Who Should Apply
- Tribal professionals or individuals with long-term, accountable engagement with tribal communities.
- Practitioners working across design, culture, technology, economy, education, research or policy.
- Those interested in building local economies not extracting cultural value.
- Individuals willing to work seriously, collaboratively and ethically.
Who Should Not Apply
- Those seeking certificates, visibility, branding or networking.
- Those expecting tribal knowledge to function as content or data.
- Those unwilling to work within community governance or accept refusal.
This is a working space.
Presence implies responsibility, not performance.
Important Dates
Registration opens: 12 February 2026
Registration closes: 28 February 2026
Selection intimation: By 28 February 2026
Lab dates: 2–4 April 2026
Limited seats. Selection is based on depth of practice and what applicants are willing to bring to the Lab as tribal professionals.
