Activist design, for the purposes of this article, frames or reveals
a problematic or challenging issue, and publicly calls for change
to resolve that issue. It typically acts on behalf of a “deprived,
excluded, or wronged population” to which we might add “issue”
in the case of the environment [16].

Design activism, for the purposes of this article, addresses
largely progressive social and environmental issues, and although
this might happen through for-profit undertakings, there is a pri-
mary or equal focus on social change.

MISUNDERSTANDING DESIGN ACTIVISM

Perhaps you've heard the critique: activism is fundamentally
negative. It is about stopping or preventing things. This idea
harks back to traditional protest methods of boycotts and block-
ades—activists throwing themselves in front of road crews to
prevent a highway being built, thereby manufacturing vulnerab-
ility that dramatizes power relations [8].

Asecond critique suggests that, whether or not activism resists
or protests, most of it is really just raising awareness and doesn’t
accomplish anything. While an activist project may alert more
people that driving cars contributes to climate change, even with
that awareness, few people change their behavior.

Let’s examine these critiques relative to design activism. First,
unlike protesters, architects can’t throw their buildings in front of
highway builders in order to stop road building. Clothing design-
ers can’t throw zero-waste clothing in front of farmers to stop them
from putting toxic chemicals on fibers like cotton or sheep wool.

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1 Force
2 Bargaining or Exchange
3 Persuasion

Designers work with things and spaces more than they do
events. Even if we could throw buildings and products in front
of people to influence their behavior, those artifacts probably
wouldn’t be ready on the timeline required; design is generally
much slower and more lasting than typical activist events.

Instead, design activists practice a different form of activism.
They most often try to bring about change by generating positive
alternatives to the status quo. Rather than being resistant, design
activism is mostly “generative” [7].

By the time they are hugging trees or lying in a bulldozer’s path,
activists have typically already diagnosed the problem and decided
what should be done about it (e.g. stop the road) [2]. To put their
lives on the line, in this example, activists have to be 100% confi-
dent that the road is wrong.

By contrast, to the extent that design is an experimental, inven-
tive, project-based undertaking, few designers would claim 100%
confidence in their solutions. Most see their work in a continuum
of experimentation and refinement, both within any given design
project and outside of it. Each new project—their own and oth-
ers’ —informs them about what works and what doesn’t.

Ultimately, most design activism is about better understand-
ing the problem, rather than acting with certainty towards a single

ABOVE, FORMS OF POWER
For designers, it is helpful to understand the different
forms of power in order to make choices and influence
decisions that affect us.