Design and Political Dissent by Jilly Traganou

This book examines, through an interdisciplinary lens, the relationship between political dissent and processes of designing.

In the past twenty years, theorists of social movements have noted a diversity of visual and performative manifestations taking place in protest, while the fields of design, broadly defined, have been characterized by a growing interest in activism. The book's premise stems from the recognition that material engagement and artifacts have the capacity to articulate political arguments or establish positions of disagreement. Its contributors look at a wide array of material practices generated by both professional and nonprofessional design actors around the globe, exploring case studies that vary from street protests and encampments to design pedagogy and community-empowerment projects.

For students and scholars of design studies, urbanism, visual culture, politics, and social movements, this book opens up new perspectives on design and its place in contemporary politics.

Jilly Traganou is an architect, and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Parsons School of Design, The New School. She is co-editor-in chief of Design and Culture, and author of Designing the Olympics: Representation, Participation, Contestation (Routledge, 2016).

"... lively and timely... the volume is a welcome addition to the growing literature on design and politics. It will interest researchers and teachers of design as well as social life, while also being accessible, at least in part, to a more practice-oriented readership."

--Design and Culture

"Design and Political Dissent is a far-reaching and ambitious book not only in its intellectual and geographical scope, but also in its diversity of topics and formats."

--Journal of Design History