Design Pedagogies: “There’s Something Wrong with This System!”

Abstract

An exploration of how design might be led by marginalized communities, dismantle structural inequality, and advance collective liberation and ecological survival. What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice "Design justice" is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims expilcitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world. This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people--specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)--and invites readers to "build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability." Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival. Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Series Editor's Introduction -- Preface -- Introduction: #TravelingWhileTrans, Design Justice, and Escape from the Matrix of Domination -- The Design Justice Network -- Methods -- Design Justice: Defining Key Terms -- Chapter Overview -- Limitations -- 1: Design Values: Hard-Coding Liberation? -- Everyday Things for Whom? The Distribution of Affordances and Disaffordances under the Matrix of Domination -- Related Approaches: Value-Sensitive Design, Universal Design, Inclusive Design -- Retooling for Design Justice Hard Coding Liberation: New Developments in Scholarship and Practice -- 2: Design Practices: "Nothing about Us without Us" -- Designers: Who Gets (Paid) to Do Design? -- Imagined Users: Whose Tech? -- Design Process: From Participation to Accountability to Ownership -- #MoreThanCode: Findings from the Technology for Social Justice Project -- Conclusions -- 3: Design Narratives: From TXTMob to Twitter -- Smart Men and Start-Ups: Innovation, Attribution, and Appropriation -- Resistance Is Fertile: Social Movements, Media Innovation, and Corporate Appropriation -- Design Scoping and Framing Design Narratives: Conclusions -- 4: Design Sites: Hackerspaces, Fablabs, Hackathons, and DiscoTechs -- Hack, Make, Hustle: Subaltern Design Sites, Marginalized Design Practices -- Design Spaces: Hacklabs, Makerspaces, and Fablabs -- Hacking the Hurricane? Hackathons, DiscoTechs, Convergence Spaces, and Other Design Events -- Rethinking Design Sites through a Design Justice Lens -- 5: Design Pedagogies: "There's Something Wrong with This System!" -- Popular Education: Foundation for Design Justice Pedagogies -- Lessons from the Codesign Studio Conclusions: Learning to Code as Liberatory World-Making, or Workplace Preparedness under Neoliberal Technoculture? -- Directions for Future Work: From #TechWontBuildIt to #DesignJustice -- Questions for Design Justice Practitioners -- Values -- Practices -- Narratives -- Sites -- Pedagogies -- Conclusions -- Glossary -- Notes -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 Design Values -- 2 Design Practices -- 3 Design Narratives -- 4 Design Sites -- 5 Design Pedagogy -- Directions for Future Work -- References -- Index