Socially Responsive Design

CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts

Understanding the differences between service design, social
design and social innovation and identifying tools and methods
for designing and evaluating social change

CALL FOR PAPERS

GUEST EDITORS:
Lorraine Gamman, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design
l.gamman@csm.arts.ac.uk
Adam Thorpe, Socially Responsive Design Hub, Central Saint
Martins College of Arts and Design vexed.adam@gmail.com


SCOPE:
Academic and design practitioners are invited to submit papers on
a range of topics that might include, but not be limited to:

- Interrogation of the differences between social innovation,
social design, social enterprise and service design and how the
activities these terms describe interrelate in practice.

- Review of the methodologies of service design, social design
and social innovation delivered by design led individuals and
organizations, to understand their similarities and differences,
strengths and weaknesses.

- Review of the account of social responsibility through design
linked to up to date case studies and any forms of evidence or
evaluation of their impact.

- Accounts from other disciplines or socially led organisations,
relating to how social change is measured and how these
metrologies contribute to evaluation of social impact.

The aim of this Special Issue of CoDesign is to interrogate
"Design which takes as its primary driver social issues, its main
consideration social impact and its main objective social change"
(Gamman & Thorpe, 2006)[1]

The concept of social responsibility, the notion that an
individual, group of individuals or organisations has
responsibility to society, may be topical but has been around as
long as humanity. The benefit of such responsibility to society
was described by Darwin, who argued that: "Although a high
standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each
individual man and his children over the other men of the same
tribe...an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly
give an immense advantage to one tribe over another (and
therefore those within it)"[2]

Darwin is talking in terms of competition rather than altruism or
empathy, his argument is nevertheless clear; those societies made
up of individuals that accept inclusive, collective goals and
responsibilities are more likely to be prosperous and
self-sustaining than those that don't.

A century later the idea that design has a responsibility to
society and environment was crucially defined by Papanek, who
argued alongside contemporaries, such as Buckminster Fuller and
EF Schumacher, that: "Design has become the most powerful tool
with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by
extension, society and himself)". [3]

Given the enormous impact of design, Papanek addressed the
conscience of the designer and argued that they should seek to
make a positive contribution to society and the environment by
focusing on six core themes:

- Design for the third world
- Design for the elderly and disabled (design for minorities)
- Design for medicine, surgery, dentistry and hospital equipment
(health)
- Design for experimental research
- Design for sustaining human life under marginal conditions,
survival systems/hostile environments
- Design for breakthrough concepts

Papanek also argued that other kinds of design consumed resources
in pursuit of financial profit and had a negative impact on both
society and environment. Consequently those designers who engaged
with the market should contribute either 1/10 of their time or
1/10 of their income to socially responsible projects while
continuing with their jobs.

More recent notions of responsible design are less dismissive of
the market and economic imperatives. Morelli argues; "The time
has come to review Papanek... from a new perspective, which
reduces the distance between market-based and socially oriented
initiatives".[4]

The addition of economics to the social and environmental
imperatives of Papanek provides 'a triple bottom line' for
considering design innovation that contributes to sustainability.

Building social and environmental resilience and sustainability
is of paramount concern to government, and public and third
sector agencies, facing the challenge of delivering public
services more efficiently and effectively with less resource.
Since the millennium the challenge of delivering more for less
has preoccupied several design organisations that have sought to
apply collaborative, human and user-centric design methodologies
to service design, social design and social innovation delivering
products, services and environments that contribute to
efficiencies in meeting societal challenges including health,
crime, ageing population, energy use and climate change.

These societal challenges constitute 'wicked' and 'complex'
design problems that require us to address multiple and combined
stakeholders, agendas and contexts.

Complex problems require an ordered approach; involve multiple
stakeholders, multiple agendas and multiple contexts. This
special issue of CoDesign seeks to articulate and review the
methodologies that underpin this approach and assess their value.

Deadline for submission: 28 January 2011
Proposed timetable to publication thereafter:
Post-review notification of decisions: 30 April 2011
Deadline for submission of revised papers: 30 June 2011
Final selected papers to production: 9 September 2011
Publication of Special Issue: December 2011

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS:
Manuscripts should be prepared according to guidelines which can
be found
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t716100698~
tab=submit~mode=paper_submission_instructions

All submissions should be made online at the CoDesign Manuscript
Central site at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ncdn

New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged
on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Centre.
Online user guides and access to a helpdesk are available on this
website.

Manuscripts may be submitted in any standard format, including
Word, PostScript and PDF. Authors should prepare and upload two
versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text,
while in the second all document information identifying the
author should be removed from files to allow them to be sent
anonymously to referees. When uploading files authors should
define the non-anonymous version as "File not for review".

All published articles will undergo rigorous peer review, based
on initial guest editors screening and anonymous refereeing by
independent expert referees.

Potential authors should contact Professor Lorraine Gamman
(l.gamman@csm.arts.ac.uk) with any questions about the Special
Issue.

For further Information about CoDesign go to:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ncdn