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"Matthew DelSesto provides a compelling blueprint for a design practice that enables us to address the social, political and environmental challenges of today. By combining the creative, action-oriented sensibility of design with the reflective, analytical capacities of the social sciences, DelSesto offers models, ideas and strategies for shaping the future. Drawing on the work of C. Wright Mills, Patrick Geddes, Jane Addams and W. E. B. Du Bois, and exploring professional practices and discourses in a wide range of design fields, this book shows us how design and the social sciences can interact in a more productive way"--
List of contents
Preface
Part One: Awakening the Social Imagination
1. Another Relationship to Knowledge
2. The Enduring Gap between Reflection and Action
Part Two: The Key Thinkers: Their Lives, Contexts, and Projects
3. Patrick Geddes: Thinking Ecologically
4. Jane Addams: Theories in, of and for Practice
5. W. E. B. Du Bois: From Consciousness to Cooperation
Part Three: The Choreography of Beautiful Action
6. If You Can Think, You Can Act
7. Contingent Becoming
Afterword: Social Thinking, Imagining, and Designing
About the author
Matthew DelSesto
Summary
How can social theory help us all design solutions to address the social, political and ecological challenges that confront us, and build more sustainable communities?
Design professions have typically been associated with intervention and action, while social science has long been associated with thought and reflection. Design and social thought are too frequently considered distinct in terms of how theories can be applied in practice. Design and the Social Imagination brings together the creative, action-oriented sensibility of design with the reflective, analytical capacities of the social sciences to offer models, ideas and strategies for shaping the future of the world we live in.
In a world of global economic inequality, racism, and environmental degradation, designing with an understanding of our social reality is increasingly crucial to our survival. Matthew DelSesto explores current practices and discourses in areas of urban design, design for social innovation, environmental design, co-design, service design, and more, illustrating how thoughtful design can contribute in a more productive way. Drawing on a range of theory and practice from radical social thinkers C. Wright Mills, Patrick Geddes, Jane Addams and W. E. B. Du Bois, his book shows us how design and the social sciences can interact in order to intervene in the crises we face today.
Foreword
Matthew DelSesto provides a compelling blueprint for how design and designing can learn from social theory in order to address today's social, political and environmental challenges.
Additional text
This original, erudite, and nuanced book innovatively connects social thought, social action, and design via its focus on three foundational scholar-activists who forged and transcended their home disciplines. Elaborating on the fascinating lives and consequential work of Patrick Geddes, Jane Addams, and W.E.B. Du Bois, Design and the Social Imagination illuminates the capacities of both design and social science to reflect the world and to take action in it.
