ABOUT US

The social design research group was established in 2015 at the Department of Design, Media and Educational Science / SDU

The social design research group was established in 2015 at the Department of Design, Media and Educational Science / SDU

The group has a keen interest in how people can be involved in participatory design processes leading to social value for the individual and society at large. By social value, we refer to changes at a human scale that is felt to be beneficial for marginalised or vulnerable societal groups and communities.

The group has a keen interest in how people can be involved in participatory design processes leading to social value for the individual and society at large. By social value, we refer to changes at a human scale that is felt to be beneficial for marginalised or vulnerable societal groups and communities.

Design research practice is essential for our work

We use design methods to make sense of wicked problems, as a way of engaging and co-designing with people and as a process of making artefacts or services enabling people to cope with difficult situations in life.

 

Through a number of research projects we have documented our ability to evaluate social design outcomes by bridging disciplines from the human and social sciences.

In order to secure meaningful implementation of our design, we work with organisations within the public and private sector from the earliest developmental phases.

RESEARCH AREAS

In our social design unit we are concerned with the urgent societal need for rethinking core services of the Scandinavian and European welfare states. In particular, our research projects lies within the following four areas:

NEWS

PhD course “Research on and into Practice”

PhD course "Research on and into Practice" On January 26 the Social Design Unit delivered a half-day PhD workshop at SDU for doctoral fellows doing research in which understanding “practices” in various contexts is central. Whether doing research on practice or to contribute to practice, researchers often face the [...]

Social Design Unit participate in THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ANTICIPATION

Social Design Unit participate in THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ANTICIPATION Phoenix, Arizona Date: November 15-18, 2022 To increase knowledge on future studies and the interdisciplinary field of Anticipation, the Social Design Unit participated in the international conference on anticipation. Here the unit presented a paper focusing on green transition and [...]

Thomas Markussen
thma@sdu.dk +45 93507196

Eva Knutz
evak@sdu.dk+45 93507135

University of Southern Denmark
Department of Design, Media and Educational Science
Universitetsparken 1
6000 Kolding, Denmark