Exploring how design educators deploy the idea of the radical

This book argues that, over the past 15 years, there has been a consistent deterioration of democracy in tandem with the establishment of the marketization and monetization of design education. Navigating difficult external political contexts in the middle of internal power struggles, college design courses seem to be incapable of challenging political, social, cultural and environmental phenomena with the urgency that all of these demand. Swallowed by an ever-rolling snowball of neoliberal educational models, small gestures do not produce the kind of radical change that design education and our catastrophic climate crisis needs for our survival.

The fourth issue of Onomatopee’s annual design criticism journal investigates the use of the word radical in design discourse and practice, exploring the challenges design universities face in responding with urgency to political, social, cultural and environmental struggles.This issue features essays by Danah Abdulla, Anne-Marie Willis, Tanveer Ahmed, Kenneth Fitzgerald, Anja Groten, Hannah Ellis and the research-led platform Depatriarchise Design.