Design practices that don’t actively work against the structures and norms shaped by this unspoken ideology only perpetuate them, making the asymmetries stronger. This is “business-as-usual design,” BaUD. Unfortunately, as highlighted in the critiques of capitalism discussed earlier, business as usual simply isn’t working. It’s not working for the vast majority of people on this planet, and it’s not working for the planet. If design is capable of inciting systems-level change, if design is capable of initiating social change in ways both large and small, it has to think and act ideologically. It must acknowledge the situation, determine alternatives, and make pathways to achieve them. Designers can transcend the structures that limit design’s change-making actions, even as the limits of social possibilities remain constrained by state and legal apparatuses. Like any design challenge, doing so will require framing the problem carefully to intervene effectively.
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