Confronting legacies of oppression in systemic design
Systemic design is often complicit in the reproduction of oppression, contributing to structural inequities being designed into our systems. A growing group of scholars and practitioners are confronting legacies of oppression in this domain, such as through explorations into decolonizing systems thinking (Goodchild, 2021), abolitionist design (Fathallah & Lewis, 2021), and design justice (Costanza-Chock, 2020). To grapple with the systemic nature of oppression, a greater commitment to equity, self-determination and liberation in, through and beyond systemic design is needed.
This focus generated contributions exploring the following questions and related points of inquiry:
- How is oppression enacted in systemic design theory and/or practice?
- What relevant thinking and doing related to systemic design can aid in confronting the systemic nature of oppression and inform a more equitable approach?
- What does a liberatory approach to systemic design mean in practice?
- What is needed for systemic design to meaningfully reduce structural inequalities in the outcomes of our social systems?
Thanks to those who have proposed and developed the focuses: Christopher Daniel, Gareth Owen Lloyd, Dulmini Perera, Sally Sutherland, Ben Sweeting, James Tooze, Jeffrey P. Turko, and Josina Vink.
Indicative references
- Goodchild, M. (2021). Relational systems thinking: That’s how change is going to come, from our Earth mother. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 1(1), 75-103.
- Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. MIT Press.
- Fathallah, S. and Lewis, A. D. S. (2021). Abolish the cop inside your (designer’s) head. Design Museum Magazine, (018). https://designmuseumfoundation.org/abolish-the-cop-inside-your-designers-head/
- Jacobs, J. and Carey, H. (2021). Designing against oppression: A conceptual framework for an anti-oppressive design praxis. Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD10) 2021 Symposium. https://rsdsymposium.org/designing-against-oppression-a-conceptual-framework-for-an-anti-oppressive-design-praxis/
Confronting legacies of oppression
Critical and Pluriversal Design for a World in Crisis
Lesley-Ann Noel
Seeing RSD11’s Seven Foci Relationally
Tony Fry
Confronting Legacies of Oppression in Systemic Design
Alberto Soriano, Josina Vink, and Shivani Prakash
Absence, Ignorance, Presence (AIP) – An Exformative Approach to Confronting Legacies of Oppression in Education
Francis Laleman
Indigenising & Decolonising Social Innovation: Lessons for Systemic Design
Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse
Wordings and Worldings—DALL-E wordplays to visualise alternative metaphors for complex systems
Palak Dudani
Systemic-self and Pluriverse: A design research framework for pluriverse
Mamta Gautam
A Case Study of Theories of Systemic Change and Action: The Ecotrust Canada Home-Lands initiative
Lewis Muirhead and Ryan J.A. Murphy
Leaky Bodies and Environments: Infant feeding and design
Sally Sutherland
Quilting Care Patterns: Remaking our social fabric
Josina Vink
Rethinking Participatory Design Research Methodologies
Chantal Spencer
Shifting Perceptions: Transforming anti-racism praxis into prototypes
Sameer Singh
The Hip Hop Xpress Double Dutch Boom Bus
William M. Patterson and Sharon Irish
Towards Relational Design Practices: De-centering design through lessons from community organising
Erica Dorn and Tara Dickman
Utilising Design Thinking to Reimagine Campus Culture: Learning, engagement, and persistence
Lynn Murray-Chandler, Danielle Lake, and David Humphreys
Full Plate: Reducing food wastage to ensure food security for everyone
Abhishek Ranjan, Ayur Gillurkar, Dhruvin Bhuva, Praveen Nahar, and Sahil Thappa
Gamifying the Concept of Wâhkôhtowin to Rebuild Relations
Sam Singh and Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse
Systems of Information Dissemination
Andrea Barros, Sylvia MacSpadyen, Aisha Simpson, Hannah Karunakar and Umar Shaikh
The Polyskooter[s]
O. Fred Preston
Women and Money: An investigation into gender disparity in financial literacy
Nikita Jaiswal and Tanishka Kacru