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

Research seminar with Michael Bamberg

Research seminar with Michael Bamberg How can design games be used to help vulnerable young people to talk about their loneliness? What do these conversations tell us about their understanding of loneliness and the means for coping with it? These are central questions for Mads Bährenholdt from the Social [...]

Social Design at “Kulturmødet Mors” 

Social Design at “Kulturmødet Mors” The Social Design Unit will participate at the event “Kulturmødet Mors” – a festival and gathering place for performances and conversations about art and culture. The event brings together artists, authors, politicians, opinion makers and citizens to take the temperature of current themes in [...]

New article published in The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice

New article published in The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice The Social Design Unit's close collaboration with the Danish Prison and Probation Service and criminologist Linda Kjær Minke has resulted in a new co-authored article published in The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice. Based on our prison [...]

New article on Design Fiction accepted for the IASDR Conference 2023

New article on Design Fiction accepted for the IASDR Conference 2023 Based on our company collaboration with EWII on Sustainable Energy Futures and our continued and ardent interest in speculative design and design fiction, we have authored a new article entitled Design Fiction and the Art of Anticipation. It [...]

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