The definition of social design, one may claim, is fundamentally design with social efficacy that aims at challenging existing consensus and fomenting dissensus. A social design project can take the form of an intervention, exhibition, performance, artistic research or a “happening” in public, semi-public or private space. A project usually represents the disenfranchised and aims at subverting power structures. It may give voice to the silenced and agency to the weak or merely create platforms for the enunciation of social problems. A social designer is socially engaged with societal and political struggles. Social engagement, civic participation, co-creation, co-authorship, bottom-up strategies paired with top-down approaches, critical art practices and interdisciplinary work are some of the key terms utilized in this field. Projects intersect fields of the social sciences, geography, architecture, urban design, health and education. And finally, the practice of social design is ceaselessly political.
Auteur
Date
January 8, 2018