Swiss Design Network Online Symposia 2021: Design As Common Good – Framing Design Through Pluralism and Social Values

Swiss Design Network Online Symposia 2021

Design as Common Good - Framing design through pluralism and social values

In light of social, economic, technological and environmental challenges, design researchers, practitioners as well as communities constantly critically address and question the contribution of design to the common good. The Common Good as conceptualized by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Zalta et al., 2018) “benefits society as a whole – in contrast to the private good of individuals and sections of society.” Design as a discipline has long been positioned from the context of developing and catering to the private good, focusing on individual and smaller sections of society - largely leaving its contributions to the common good under explored.

With our conference Design as Common Good, the Swiss Design Network invites everyone interested in reflecting upon what constitutes a common good and specifically what constitutes a common good in and through design. The conference aims to develop new and relevant points of entry for research, education and practice around this topic.

We want to collaboratively explore what common good can entail, critically thinking and learning from each other. We welcome papers and projects from researchers and scholars addressing the issue of the common good through, with and within design in the hopes of encouraging others from domains outside the academic design discipline to join our discussion and conference.