ABOUT US
The social design research group was established in 2015 at the Department of Design & Communication / 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 marginalized 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.
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
The 9th Nordes Design Research conference
The Social Design Unit in the Nordes 21 organizing team Together with a group of great people, the social design unit is deeply involved in arranging and [...]
Visit to Veenhuizen Prison
The social design unit travels to the north of Holland to see the new “fathers wing” in Veenhuizen prison Despite COVID restrictions, we manage to visit the [...]
New publication in Design Studies
How do we account for our implicit assumptions and roles embedded in a social design project? This article - co-authored together with our good colleague Mette Gislev [...]
New Routledge book “Design & Political Dissent”
Book chapter on the politics of design activism Jilly Traganou from Parsons New School in New York is the editor of the book Design & Political Dissent: [...]
Thomas Markussen
thma@sdu.dk +45 93507196
Eva Knutz
evak@sdu.dk+45 93507135
University of Southern Denmark
Department for Design and Communication Universitetsparken 1 6000 Kolding, Denmark
