Hasta La Ideas

In October 2010, the Winterhouse Institute brought together 13 representatives of undergraduate or graduate institutions who taught social design in isolated courses or built programs around this area for a special symposium on design education and social change. The goal was to share insights, strategies and concerns about a discipline that has experienced dramatic growth in recent years, yet remains, in its teaching, research and community-oriented practices, inchoate if not chaotic. It was agreed that the first symposium’s participants formed the kernel of a valuable network, and that any subsequent meeting should increase the number of attendees while drilling down on several dominant themes.

Ten months later, the Winterhouse Second Symposium on Design Education and Social Change was convened. This symposium’s 28 participants included seven members from the charter event; the chairs of two new graduate programs in social design; the co-founder of an international NGO; a leader of K-12 design education; an emeritus dean of architecture who is building a consortium of international design schools focused on social urbanism; two administrators of grant programs for design and social change projects; key educators at institutions or programs that had not been represented at the first symposium; a design journalist specializing in business innovation; and the headmaster, dean of faculty and summer portals director at the Hotchkiss School.

The themes that carried over from the previous event and served as a springboard for conversation were:

• Charting new academic social-design programs and initiatives
• Forming partnerships between educational institutions, foundations and NGOs
• Establishing metrics for the efficacy of social design programs
• Navigating educational requirements and goals while contributing to social welfare
• Exploiting media platforms for disseminating information about social design
• Defining social design
• Outlining opportunities for meeting and collaboration
• New ideas and proposals for collective action

Read the full report at Change Observer!

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