Design Research for Change (DR4C)
In recent years, design research has witnessed a clear “social turn” where researchers have looked to make change in more socially-focused contexts as opposed to wholly commercial realms. This “social turn” has encompassed a range of activities and interventions that constitute a more “socially-driven” form of design, which suggests that researchers and practitioners from non-design disciplines are working in close collaboration with design researchers with the ambition to realise change in social, cultural, economic, and environmental situations.
The twenty papers in this Design Research for Change (DR4C) book examine this “social turn” in design in detail and explore how contemporary forms of design research are increasingly involved in a range of social, cultural, economic, environmental and political action. The research included in this book highlights a variety of significant roles that design researchers play in some of the most challenging issues we face, both in the UK and globally.