MA Design for Social and Environmental Innovation

Become a design activist. Stand up for what you believe in. Make change. Call out injustice or what’s wrong with the way things are. We want you to gain control. We want you to make change. Based on an ethics of care and non-harm, we want you to use design to lead towards the changes that you believe in.



The Design Activism Studio will introduce you to historic and contemporary forms of advocacy and activism practices and the distinctiveness of design activism. You will explore the social and economic structures within, and for which, ‘design’ functions thereby positioning Design Activism alongside other distinctive design practices and contexts. You will begin to understand the political power of design and how design activism can operate at different scales, for different audiences focused on different concerns. In this studio you will learn about critical transitions that societies face, how these produce dilemmas, and key social and design theories that can inform your design activism.



Through design activism practice you will explore place-based social, economic and environmental concerns, outrage or injustice identifying your own values, standpoint and hopes. You will operate as part of a collective with your peers, producing design work that advocates for change targeting both decision makers and a public audience.



In this studio you will position design amongst other practices of advocacy in support of, and in creating, reform. You will learn where you believe the boundaries are for your activist practice and when you believe others step beyond a responsible practice.

Contribute to the global discussion about what it means to live well and what must be designed to create conditions that allow that to happen. Become an agent of transformation, orchestrating interactions that foster resilience and adaptability. Design not just for today, but for the cascading effects on tomorrow’s world.



The Design for Critical Transitions Studio uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as an initial framework to consider the critical transitions that societies need to make and produces forums to collaboratively and creatively identify and nurture emerging alternative future realities. In this studio you will take a multiple-generational view, learning about the foundations, approaches and practices from Systemic Design, Transition Design, and Design for Policy, to form an approach to act now to support critical transitions that are just in their process and outcomes. Through the lens of Systemic Design, you will develop systems thinking and an understanding of the intricate web of relationships that define our world, crafting solutions that honour the complexity of life. Leaning on Transition Design and Transition Management approaches will enable you to envision, share and work collaboratively towards futures that are not only desirable but sustainable, designing to support interventions that are effective but also adaptable and scalable. Through ‘Design for Policy,’ approaches you will explore ways to influence the rules that govern our lives, ensuring they reflect collective values and aspirations.



Through this studio you will better understand systemic leverage points for micro, meso and macro scales of change and how design can be used to connect people with different priorities to deal to with disputes and dilemmas with cultural sensitivity. This will allow you to take longer-term strategic perspective on responsible innovation and how local action relates to and influences global issues.

Relationships are a foundation of sustainable social change. In contexts where social change is either desirable or necessary centring relationships and their development is vital.



In the Relational Design Studio step into the dance of relational design, where every step, every movement, is part of a larger choreography of meaningful connection and interdependency. Relational Design focuses on communities, their environments, resources and relationships rather than individuals and their needs and wants. The tools of this studio build, bridge gaps, knit networks and open hearts and minds. Grounded in a philosophy of interconnectedness and mutual growth, we encourage you to use design as a conduit for nurturing the relationships that build a better, cohesive future.



You will delve into the dynamics of our human connections with one another, with other life forms, and the planet itself. These relationships span every corner of our lives, from the places we live and work to the places we socialise and seek help. You will learn relational design principles and approaches that consider the complex web of interdependent relationships and how to support them through design practice. Through your project(s) you will apply and reflect upon the application of design and designing to develop relationships and relational boundaries and experience how design can be used to mediate tensions while responding to emergent situations that seek to repair strain and restore appreciative interconnectedness.



In this studio you will learn about ontological design (a practice of shaping our environment that in turn shapes us) and redirective practice (which aims to nurture and heal relationships among living and non-living entities) to ensure that relationships are a central component of your responsible innovation practice.

Embrace responsible design. Uphold the principles of sustainability and ethics in every decision. Drive transformation. Challenge the status quo when it fails to be inclusive or sustainable. We encourage you to take the reins. We urge you to be the catalyst for responsible innovation. Rooted in an ethos of care and commitment to do no harm, we inspire you to harness the power of design to forge the progressive path you envision.

In the Responsible Design Innovation Studio, as a member of a team, you will integrate the knowledge and understanding you have developed in previous modules to plan and lead a coherent and creative responsible design innovation project. You will learn how to combine different design and innovation approaches to create your own research methodology and plan. Authentic collaboration and effective teamwork are critical to responsible design innovation; as a member of a team you will develop a project network of collaborators and supporters, creating physical and digital encounters that support a participatory approach. You will determine an appropriate application of human and non-human generative methods to collect and synthesise diverse perspectives collaboratively exploring future possibilities and complications, ensuring concerns about plurality, inequity, sustainment, and colonisation are evident in analysis and iterative cycles.

You will lead a dialogue amongst public and professional audiences demonstrating a creative and responsible approach that utilises design to navigate interconnected issues and concerns, producing materials, artefacts and spaces to support an ongoing design-based action and dialogue beyond your project. Through this module you will demonstrate your own responsible innovation leadership as you shape narratives of change with communities, organisations and institutions.

Develop a design innovation practice so that you can work in a team to identify needs, frame challenges and creatively respond with prototypes to support and enable positive change.

The Responsive Design Innovation Studio is the first module of this programme and will introduce fundamental Design Innovation knowledge, practices, processes, and resources. Responsive Design is about recognising difficulties or opportunities that matter to a particular group or organisation and with a reflective practice creatively developing proposals that are sensitive to their environment and their ability to act and implement change. In this studio you will learn about, and in a team, apply design-led human-centred innovation practice to undertake real-world projects. With these projects you will tackle complex challenges responding to the urgent needs and compelling opportunities of collaborating organisations and communities.

You will be introduced to the practices and methods of Design Thinking and Frame Creation, which you will explore and apply within your team-based projects to produce value propositions. You will learn about and experience how design innovation is applied in different contexts and timeframes, ranging from short and intense workshop facilitation, through to structured day or week-long design sprints, to more extended human-centred design projects. Planning and delivering design in these different contexts are sought after innovation capabilities and will support your employability.

In this studio you will learn how to locate your practice within the broader contexts of the team, the organisation, and the operational environment to construct an understanding of responsibilities within responsive innovation contexts.

How social is design? Explore the boundaries of this question, expand your design repertoire and create new forms of ‘public good’. Can design purposefully shift social structures to address the inequity people experience? You will develop your appreciation of the complications that arise while working with people attempting to materialise new kinds of futures. This module will help in the development of your respectful, participatory design practice and allow you to more sensitively contribute to re-structuring the social for good.



In contrast to dominant forms of contemporary Western design that operate within and reinforce social and institutional structures, the Social Design Studio will introduce forms of design that take aim at re-configuring social and institutional structures and logics. Informed by the historical development of social design and participatory design and their underpinning theories you will examine existing social design contexts and projects to inform your own social design practice.



A team project is your opportunity to design socio-material environments to gather different people together so they can give form to the issues that matter to them. Your creative work, supporting people to co-design, will allow that public to recognise, express and explore its disagreements. Critical to your project work will be an exploration of how initiatives and proposals developed through a participatory practice can be made real and embedded in existing structures and ways of living and doing.



In this studio, you will develop your understanding of the responsibilities and complications associated with designing as participatory public processes within emergent social systems.

You will develop your understanding of academic conventions in UK higher education aligned to your level of study, including expectations around critical analysis, structure, argumentation, evidencing, and referencing. The module focuses on developing communication strategies that will help you express your ideas clearly and coherently in written assignments and spoken activities. You will also reflect on your current academic and language skills and develop strategies for development ahead of your assessments.