Design Philosophy Papers is calling for papers that reflect critically upon the relationship between design and the communities that are being designed for and/or with. Examples include, but are not restricted to: Inclusive Design; Universal Design; ‘Design for All’; Human-centred Design; Co-Design; Participatory Design; Design for Social Innovation.
These, and similar designations are assumed to be ‘progressive’ and they imply a critique of mainstream design practices. At the same time, these figures of ‘another kind of designing’ in their conceptualisation, successes and failures highlight important issues of: power; inequity; efficacy; needs; professional vs. other values; models of economic ‘development’; incommensurable and conflicting modes of understanding and being in the world; and last, but not least, how the imperative of sustainment is positioned in the relations between designers and communities that are being designed for/with, and what such designing puts in place.
From analysis of historical models to describing the tensions present in current and future practice, papers should discuss problems and opportunities of ‘progressive’ designing, taking into account the provocation, key issues, philosophical and strategic questions outlined in the detailed brief.
The issue will be edited by Sean Donahue, Rama Gheerawo & Anne-Marie Willis.
