This thesis is a descriptive and qualitative study of collaborative and community-based design activism in the United States. The research posits that our current curricular models do not accurately reflect our social and global conditions, but are rather based on professionally
driven and outmoded pedagogical models. The main goal is to
provide an educational framework in order to understand current needs and future goals of design.
In 2009, participants in the Designers Accord, a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders, met and established that designers will need to engage in “deeper personal, social, and cultural connections” in their work in the future (Accord, 2009, para. 2). Indeed, within the past two decades, we have seen an increase in the number of socially responsible thinkers and design teams doing this “good” work. (Berman, 2008).
Current curricula in the United States have started to offer singular courses on social change and design responsibility. However, full integration of social responsibility into design curricula at the university level has been slow to respond to current social challenges present today (E. Jones, 2002). It is now being recognized that, “Design pedagogy has the responsibility to respond to the shifting landscape of design practice” in order to prepare students to confront the challenges we face as a global community concerning the environment, economics, and social responsibility (Melsop, Gill, & Chan, 2010, pg. 5).
This thesis reviews the current state of socially conscious design activism for design education in the United States today. Case studies of applicable design activism projects are examined through a framework of typical methods and tools used, to understand the characteristics that exemplify design activism today. The framework leads to a model that shows how these key characteristics can be incorporated into design education without disrupting design curricula already in place.