design activism

Hello. I’m Ann Thorpe, an American (and lately also a Brit) based in London. These pages stem from my work on sustainable design. That work suggests to me that to design effectively for a cause, such as sustainability, designers have to become activists to a certain extent. Yet explicit activism has been largely taboo among designers. These pages are meant to explore the notion of design as activism as well as its relationship to sustainable design.

For my purposes activism is some form of intentional action to bring about change, often in relation to a contentious issue (eg how we should stabilize the climate). Further, I’m concerned with activism that consists of actions that are visibly public in nature, rather than the day-to-day, behind the scenes administration of groups. And finally, my interest is in activism that makes a claim for change (either cultural or political) on behalf of a wronged, excluded or deprived group.

I’m currently in the midst of a research project on design activism to examine and describe how designers have been engaging with social and environmental change over the last 20 years or so. Some of the basic issues around design activism include:

As a way of launching the discussion, I’m going to post some answers to questions that I frequently get when I talk about my book. These are questions that concern the activism associated with sustainable design.

You can find my bio here. You can contact me via email ann [at] designactivism.net