Can design activate a sense of agency towards others?

There is a lot of contemporary ‘noise’ surrounding the impacts of design on ‘society’ and we often think enough is enough. In parallel, there are discourses concerning collaboration and participation in order to design more sustainable societies and environments.

Sometimes we dismiss them as disposable buzzwords.

Finally there is extensive contemporary emphasis on ‘designers’ capabilities of ‘commoning’ and providing agency for the public.

For precisely these reasons, this is a positive time to reflect on how to navigate, as designers, to trigger societal change for the common good and public interest. After all, we are recognised as having a power: to conjure and embody preferable futures.

• Can we dream about acting for sustainability and societal change?
• Can we inspire, catalyse or support in people a sense of agency towards ‘others’, providing for post human and non-human assets?
• Leading to proactively questioning, how we should implement… Do Nothing For Us Without Us…?

On May 30, Dr Rob Phillips, Senior Tutor in Design Products at the RCA and Anna Meroni, Professor of Design at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, will discuss ways designers can navigate and trigger societal change for the common good and public interest.

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art aims to achieve international standards of excellence in the postgraduate and pre- /mid-professional education of artists and designers and related practitioners. It aims to achieve these through the quality of its teaching, research and practice and through its relationship with the institutions, industries and technologies associated with the disciplines of art and design.