Design: Shortcuts to a Big Idea

A one-of-a-kind exploration of the intersection of sociology and design, exploring the artificial, human-made, and designed world through a new set of ‘glasses’, enabling a deeper understanding of the sociologically importance of design.

This book will show how what we tend to take for granted really is the result of design imaginaries and design choices made by someone, somewhere. We know that things are ‘made’ but often we tend to forget so in our busy daily lives. This volume welcomes a critical slowing down to pause and understand the normativity of all design as well as its relation to values and culture. It will do so by showing examples of design that enables and help humans, as well as by showing cases of design that excludes and marginalize humans, like when senior citizens avoid going out in the city because the traffic lights shift from green to red so quickly, they cannot cross the street for green light or when wheelchair users restrain from going to a theatre or a public space due to the presence of stairs. Both are cases of ‘unintended consequences of design’. At other times we see deliberate attempts to ‘design away’ unwanted groups of people like interventions in urban space to prevent people in homelessness from lying down in public spaces to rest for the night. Regardless of if we explore a traffic light street crossing, a building with stairs, or anti-homeless and exclusionary design interventions one thing is certain: design choices are value-based and affects the lives that can be lived.

Offering a critical gaze at design, the book may find use in social science curricula (sociology, anthropology, human geography) but also within the architecture and design programs (architecture, urban design, planning) as well as in relation to Human-Computer-Interaction and industrial design. This book will fit graduate, postgraduate students as well as other researchers and teachers as well as informed and interests professionals. The book is written in a clear language and with many examples making it an accessible text.