Teaching design for sustainability from the classroom: Uncomfortable reflections from a comfortable place

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A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa

Date

2023-06-12

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Degree programme

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en

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10

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Proceedings of Nordes 2023: This Space Intentionally Left Blank, Volume 10, Nordic design research conference ; Volume 10

Abstract

The paper describes co-teaching on a masters programme with design for sustainability at its core. The programme puts emphasis on involving multiple societal stakeholders but increasingly also on appreciating the often tricky social and value-laden dimensions of designing better futures. In this context, we seek to foster students’ imagination and support their utopian thought and futures-oriented design. The classroom experience shows that this is achievable through rather conventional academic practices, ones rooted in disciplinary insight and empirical and historical research. The paper also suggests that enhancing students’ self-critical understanding of their own situatedness, even their own comforts, by grounding both teaching and speculation historically, supports their impulse to be simultaneously bold and realistic. It also tempers the tendency in design research to offer “we should” as research outcome. The contents of both “we” and “should” can be left empty, but more is gained by being clear about the implications.

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Berglund, E 2023, Teaching design for sustainability from the classroom: Uncomfortable reflections from a comfortable place . in V Rodrigues, C Westin & S Holmlid (eds), Proceedings of Nordes 2023: This Space Intentionally Left Blank . vol. 10, Nordic design research conference, vol. 10, Design Research Society, Nordic Design Research Conference, Linköping, Sweden, 11/06/2023 . https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2023.31