Our globalised world is encountering problems on an unprecedented scale. Many of the issues we face as societies extend beyond the borders of our nations. Phenomena such as terrorism, climate change, immigration, cybercrime and poverty can no longer be understood without considering the complex socio-technical systems that support our way of living. It is widely acknowledged that to contend with any of the pressing issues of our time, we have to substantially adapt our lifestyles. To adequately counteract the problems of our time, we need interventions that help us actually adopt the behaviours that lead us toward a more sustainable and ethically just future. In Designing for Society, Nynke Tromp and Paul Hekkert provide a hands-on tool for design professionals and students who wish to use design to counteract social issues. Viewing the artefact as a unique means of facilitating behavioural change to realise social impact, this book goes beyond the current trend of applying design thinking to enhancing public services, and beyond the idea of the designer as a facilitator of localised social change.

This book explores an emerging design culture that rigorously applies systems thinking to the practice of design as a form of facilitating change on an increasingly crowded planet. Designers conversant in topics such as living systems, cultural competence, social justice, and power asymmetries can contribute their creative skills to the world of social innovation to help address the complex social challenges of the 21st century. By establishing a foundation built on the capabilities approach to human development, designers have an opportunity to transcend previous disciplinary constraints, and redefine our understanding of design agency. With an emphasis on developing an adaptability to dynamic situations, the cultivation of diversity, and an insistence on human dignity, this book weaves together theories and practices from diverse fields of thought and action to provide designers with a concrete yet flexible set of actionable design principles. And, with the aim of equipping designers with the ability to drive long-term, sustainable change, it proposes a new set of design competences that emphasize a deeper mindfulness of our interdependence; with each other, and with our life-giving natural systems. It’s a call to action to use design and design thinking as a tool to transform our collective worldviews toward an appreciation for what we all hold in common; a hope and a belief that our future is a place where all of humankind will flourish.

Rapid urbanization represents major threats and challenges to personal and public health. The World Health Organisation identifies the ‘urban health threat’ as three-fold: infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases; and violence and injury from, amongst other things, road traffic. Within this tripartite structure of health issues in the built environment, there are multiple individual issues affecting both the developed and the developing worlds and the global north and south. Reflecting on a broad set of interrelated concerns about health and the design of the places we inhabit, this book seeks to better understand the interconnectedness and potential solutions to the problems associated with health and the built environment. Divided into three key themes: home, city, and society, each section presents a number of research chapters that explore global processes, transformative praxis and emergent trends in architecture, urban design and healthy city research. Drawing together practicing architects, academics, scholars, public health professional and activists from around the world to provide perspectives on design for health, this book includes emerging research on: healthy homes, walkable cities, design for ageing, dementia and the built environment, health equality and urban poverty, community health services, neighbourhood support and wellbeing, urban sanitation and communicable disease, the role of transport infrastructures and government policy, and the cost implications of ‘unhealthy’ cities etc. To that end, this book examines alternative and radical ways of practicing architecture and the re-imagining of the profession of architecture through a lens of human health.

Although design has become eminently newsworthy among the general public in our society, there is very little understanding to be found of the values and implications that underlie it. Design generates much heat but little light: we live in a world that has much design consciousness, but little design awareness. Nigel Whiteley analyses design's role and status today, and discusses what our obsession with it tells us about our own culture. Design for Society is not an anti-design book; rather, it is an anti-consumerist-design book, in that it reveals what most people would agree are the socially and ecologically unsound values and unsatisfactory implications on which the system of consumerist design is constructed. In so doing, it prepares the ground for a more responsible and just type of design.

This book focuses not on teaching techniques but on the strategic decisions which must be made before a course begins. It provides realistic advice for university and college teachers on how to design more effective courses without underestimating the complexity of the task facing course developers, and offers course designers both an understanding and a framework within which to clarify their own teaching purposes.

In this original text/reference, Bela H. Banathy discusses a broad range of design approaches, models, methods, and tools, together with the theoretical and philosophical bases of social systems design. he explores the existing knowledge bases of systems design; introduces and integrates concepts from other fields that contribute to design thinking and practice; and thoroughly explains how competence in social systems design empowers people to direct their progress and create a truly participative democracy. Based on advanced learning theory and practice, the text's material is enhanced by helpful diagrams that illustrate novel concepts and problem sets that allow readers to apply these concepts.

From the first answering machine ("the electronic brain") and the Hoover vacuum cleaner to the SS Independence and the Bell telephone, the creations of Henry S. Dreyfuss have shaped the cultural landscape of the 20th century. Written in a robust, fresh style, this book offers an inviting mix of professional advice, case studies, and design history along with historical black-and-white photos and the author's whimsical drawings. In addition, the author's uncompromising commitment to public service, ethics, and design responsibility makes this masterful guide a timely read for today's designers.

Designing the Just Learning Society presents an historically attuned and critical theoretical inquiry into the discourse of the learning society, providing a coherent framework for understanding how adults learn in the key domains of human interaction: state, civil society, and workplace. Grappling with contemporary issues, Welton, of Athabasca University, Canada, explores the way power and money distort learning in civil society, the workplace and in cultural life. He asserts that achieving a just learning society calls for collective action to transform organisational and associational life with the recognition that human beings have the capacity for self-determination and self-expression. Welton contends that the alleged emergence of a 'knowledge society' or a 'learning society' cannot be accepted as either new or good, and that 'learning' is not an essentially good thing. Indeed, that learning is harnessed in the modern world to the money-code and channels human energies and capacities in destructive directions. This passionate text speaks directly to an important area of professional and scholarly debate in adult education worldwide and, by engaging many voices, allows the reader to enter into the dialogue.

Innovation Design presents an approach to designing shared value for businesses, non-profit organizations, end-users and society. The societal and economic challenges we are currently facing – such as the aging population, energy scarcity and environmental issues – are not just threats but are also great opportunities for organizations. Innovation Design shows how organizations can contribute to the process of generating value for society by finding true solutions to these challenges. And at the same time it describes how they can capture value for themselves in business ecosystems that care for both people and planet. This book covers: creating meaningful innovations that improve quality of life, engage users and provide value for organizations and other stakeholders, guiding the creation of shared value throughout the innovation process, with a practical and integrative approach towards value that connects ideas from economics, psychology, sociology and ecology, designing new business models and business ecosystems to deliver sustainable benefits for all the involved parties and stakeholders, addressing both tangible and intangible value. Innovation Design gives numerous examples of projects and innovations to illustrate some of the challenges and solutions you may encounter in your journey of designing meaningful innovations and creating shared value. It also offers practical methods and tools that can be applied directly in your own projects. And in a fast-changing world, it provides a context, a framework and the inspiration to create value at every level: for people, for organizations and for the society in which we live.

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.