Social relations and networks have changed
so rapidly, and to such an extent, that we all see, experience, and interact
with our communities in different ways and on different scales. Within such a
haphazard environment, social design’s objective to create positive change is
unquestionably commendable. However,
such change is problematic to sustain
without a coherent methodology and strategy
and it can be argued that social design, as an explicit approach, is still in the process of
developing these. This article suggests that by promoting a design focus at
the scale of social relations, both in
terms of objectives (reducing social
disparity) and strategy (focusing on social
relations), social design can make a more effective and sustainable community contribution. To
examine the potential of this approach,
the article introduces a conceptual process model to help visualize how
inequality operates. Using this model,
examples of successful social design
projects are considered to explore how
social relations may have been positively impacted in the various contexts. Due to the complexity of
the concept of inequality, the issue of
working at simultaneous scales (external
and internal to the community) is recognized as
an important factor in a social relations design approach, as is a commitment to place-specific
sustainable change.
Design and semantics of form and movement DeSForM 2013
