Social Matter, Social Design: For good or bad, all design is social

A fresh take on the interdependence of the social and the material in contemporary design thinking

Challenging the way we look at, think of and interact with the social world, Social Matter, Social Design emphasizes the role of materiality. This enlarged field for engagement demands that design incorporates a more nuanced and complex reading of how the social is intertwined with the material, which confronts the often reductive or simplistic notion of ‘social design’, and offers novel forms of critical and meaningful engagement at a time of mounting social contradictions.

The essays are centered around four major themes: the body; earth; the political; and technology.

Authors include: Jonas Althaus, Stephane Barbier Bouvet, Mariangela Beccoi, Ellie Birkhead, Gali Blay, Nadine Botha, Pablo Calderon Salazar, Marianne Drews, Brecht Duijf, Anastasia Eggers, Gabriel Fontana, Saba Golchehr, Alorah Harman, Dick van Hoff, Eric Klarenbeek, Kuang-Yi Ku, Gabriel A Maher, Henrique Nascimento, Elisa Otanez, Ottonie von Roeder, Soren Rosenbak, Angela Rui, Vera Sacchetti, Noud Sleumer, Vivien Tauchmann and Henriette Waal.