Designing the Revolution II: Responding to Injustice
NOTE: This week I will be posting a series of follow-ups to Designing the Revolution, my initial response to Alix Rule’s The Revolution Will Not be Designed. At the end of the week, I’ll publish the essay in its entirety, complete with feedback to any comments made. Below is the fourth part of the series. You can the first part here, the second piece here, and yesterday’s here.
It’s about the role of design in the community and how you participate in constructing society.
The quote above was offered by Lebanese designer Zeina Maasri in GOOD Magazine, when discussing her work as a designer in a post-conflict society. Her words challenge designers to assume proactive roles within their community - lead roles that enable democracy. In order to actualize Zeina’s words, and broaden our focus to enact systemic change, we will need to recognize overlapping injustices and address many at once. Different people are affected by injustice in different (sometimes many) ways. The notion of overlapping injustices serves as a critique (or a condemnation, depending) of an unjust system. It’s a recognition that social and power dynamics are asymmetrical, and that social justice is a thornier problem than it may appear on the surface. This truth drives the need for direct democracy in what we do.
Through working with many and disparate groups, we can recognize these patterns, and share ideas and best practices. For example, Groundswell is currently working pro-bono with two organizations, one that promotes democracy in Africa, and an anti-racism outfit working here in the United States. Our latest commitment was to ourselves, to create at least one campaign per month that would have a public impact. We decided to play this role as activist designers, and to take direct action, rather than only facilitate causes. We believe firmly (and act accordingly) that the designer-cum-activist can have his or her hands in multiple aspects of social justice work.
John Moorehead, a fellow designer and loyal Groundswell reader, offered us this inspiring comment:
I have seen firsthand the impact design can have and I know the effort is not wasted. If there are people who commission us to help communicate notions of any kind through design, we must be “thinking designers” and carry the task in the best way we can.
In order for design to have this kind of impact, I believe we need to approach these problems by thinking systemically.
