Outline
Design for Change is an exciting interdisciplinary programme which seeks to holistically address complex global challenges that are locally felt.
It aims to foster a new breed of designer for the 21st century. To do this, it offers a particular Edinburgh blend of eco-social design. We understand eco-social design as a theoretically informed relational practice that seeks to make critical and creative interventions into socioecological systems towards the flourishing of humans, other living beings and the planet.
As a student of the Design for Change programme, we will help you develop the skills to imagine, research, ideate, communicate and deliver propositions for change that are just, equitable, and politically and economically aware.
Furthermore, we will support you to develop tactical, critical and creative design-led interventions that draw on a variety of (trans)disciplinary fields, theories, philosophies and methods. Some of those we work with most include:
- contemporary art
- philosophy and cultural studies
- social anthropology
- sociology and cultural geography
- the environmental humanities
You will have the opportunity to be part of design efforts to face the urgent challenges of our shared contemporary world – and to do so with humility and with hopefulness. These are challenges such as:
- stark inequality and inequity
- conflict and displacement
- the need to urgently transition away from fossil fuels
- environmental degradation in a time of climate change and biodiversity loss
In order to face these global challenges, the programme promotes - and tries to embody - ways of designing that are socially minded, slow and systemic. You will therefore study emplaced, relational and care-full ways of designing for change that are also conscious of the importance of positionality, value(s), habit, ritual, practice and belief, and cultural and social difference.
You will be guided, ecologically and environmentally speaking, to consider the ‘more-than-human' (all the other life on the planet in addition to humans) in your design, and to explore alternatives to the status quo and to futures so far dreamt or foretold.
In our teaching and learning we privilege the experiential, the observational, and the monistic (rather than dualistic), and when studying Design for Change, you will be encouraged to be playful! We value the ability to play and be imaginative, to create and experiment, to try and fail and see this as a valuable and necessary part of learning. In addition, we seek to cultivate design(ing) that is non- or even anti-consumerist, that is activist, materially conscious and conscious of material conditions.
Our programme is ideal for students who are looking to broaden their existing specialist approaches (perhaps gained in undergraduate study and/or through work experience) from a range of design backgrounds and disciplines across the arts, humanities and social sciences. We welcome you if you are keen to explore – with us – how design might bring about the changes you want to see in the world.
Community of practice
Students on the Design for Change programme come from different corners of the world, bringing unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds with them to enrich the studio.
Should you join us, over your year of study at ECA you will learn to work together and create a plural community of practice, as you also hone and define your own personal (design) values. This facet of the programme seeks to help broaden your perspectives, enable your learning from and collaboration with others, and help you to understand your particular position in the world and on different issues.
To find out more about this course, visit our Degree Finder: Design for Change.
