A Manifesto of Change or Design Imperialism? A Look at the Purpose of the Social Design Practice

Abstract

Social design and design activism are some of the buzzwords being used amongst designers to describe a form of design that seeks to investigate the designer's role in society by tackling community, political, and social issues. Social design is meant to pave the way for design to move away from a Eurocentric discourse, engage communities, spark local innovation, and help increase collaboration between communities, policy makers, and institutions to bring about social change and ideas through design. But there are a number of issues and questions that arise: Where is the context? Why do we continue to design at rather than design with? What are the true intentions of these projects? How can we measure results? Where are the designers from the non-Western world? What does community participation mean? This paper critiques the discipline of social design by highlighting issues through case studies and discourse, and offers solutions on how social design projects can truly begin to engage in debates and shift the discourse to be more inclusive and sensitive.