Design Struggles: Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives

An intersectional take on design history and discourse, with feminist, decolonial, anti-racist, activist, non-Western and Indigenous perspectives

Published with PLURAL Series.

Critically assessing the complicity of design in creating, perpetuating and reinforcing social, political and environmental problems, Design Struggles upends the discipline by problematizing Western notions of design, fostering situated, decolonial and queer-feminist modes of disciplinary self-critique. In order to reimagine design as an unbound, ambiguous and unfinished practice, it gathers a diverse array of perspectives, ranging from social and cultural theory, design history and activism to sociology, anthropology and critical and political studies, looking at design through the intersections of gender, culture, ethnicity and class. The contributors generate new, anti-racist, postcapitalist, queer-feminist, environmentally conscious and community-based ideas on how to transform design that challenge the status quo and amplify underrepresented voices, both in the world of design and beyond.
Contributors include: Danah Abdulla, Tanveer Ahmed, Zoy Anastassakis, Johannes Bruder, Cheryl Buckley, Sria Chatterjee, Alison J. Clarke, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Paola De Martin, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Arturo Escobar, Kjetil Fallan, Griselda Flesler, Claudia Mareis, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Ramia Mazée, Tania Messell, Nan O'Sullivan, Nina Paim, Rebecca Ross, Mia Charlene White.