Design (&) Activism

This is a book about how the worlds of design and activism (could) inspire each other. As Design and its conceptual, functional, aesthetic, speculative and interventional concepts inevitably affect our lives, it often actively interferes in common defi nitions, understandings and opinion making, which offers opportunities for ideological engagement (in a good or in a bad sense). The book focuses on theories and practices related to the role of Design in terms of addressing, provoking and creating political discourse. Starting from traditional forms of protest, visual languages of resistance, to new forms of digital participation, this will help us to better understand the rituals, structures and meanings of design activism in history and the present, clarifying that design is intrinsically social and supremely political. And it shall help us to derive arguments and examples for the transformative potential of future design (and) activism.

Tom Bieling, senior research fellow at the Design Research Lab of Berlin University of the Arts, and Postdoc at the Zentrum für Designforschung (HAW Hamburg), teaches Transformation Design at NDU St. Pölten, and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Trento and the German University in Cairo. In his research he mainly focuses on the social and political dimensions of design, particularly on aspects of design for social innovation and inclusion. www.tombieling.com