Design as a Political Activity Borrowing from Classical Political Theories

摘要

Examples in the previous section are just some of the possible political situations in design. Design professionals may also be involved in other political situations, including: 1. politics surrounding public policies, as illustrated by the long-running Interactions forum of the same name, 2. workplace politics of organizations in which design professionals operate, 3. politics of design educational institutions and funding agencies, and 4. politics of professional organizations (such as ACM). And the list could be extended even more. My goal is not to provide an elaborate rundown of all possible political situations in design. Rather, I want to illustrate that the space of political situations in design is broad and diverse. Consequently, we need to be thoughtful about the political aspects of design. Politics is an unavoidable and essential part of design. With this article I wanted to show that studying classical political theories can provide insights about why design is a political activity. I hope to encourage design professionals, researchers, and students to explore this topic in more depth by themselves.