Social Innovation and New Industrial Contexts: Can Designers “Industrialize” Socially Responsible Solutions?

Background Almost thirty-five years ago, Victor Papanek pointed out the design ers' responsibilities with respect to major social and environmental needs.2 Papanek's call perhaps was the earliest alarm bell ringing for a change in the design profession. His call drew responses that ranged from blind adulation to cursory indifference, but had less impact in the mainstream industrial production, consumer culture, and on development policies. The polarization proposed by Papanek, between industrial production in developed countries and local production in developing countries, did not help design to become a critical element of development policies. This polarization, in fact, reflects the general view of design?associated with indus trial production, and therefore not suitable for the implementation of development policies (although Papanek is clearly contrasting this view).3 For several years the majority of designers interpreted their social role as complementary to business strategies. This approach was very critical of any design initiative that was not based on the traditional market-driven approach. It is true that a small group of designers was proposing interesting, albeit isolated, design contribu tions for the solution of social or environmental problems,4 but the logic of economic rationalism seemed unbreakable, and it did not contribute to any exploration of the middle ground between pure market-based industrial logic and socially responsible design. Yet much has happened in recent decades. Twenty years after Papanek, a study of sustainability promoted by the Dutch govern ment5 offered a more substantial argument for change: a model using some projections of critical environmental factors suggested that a ninety-percent reduction of the global ecological impact (factor 10) is needed by 2040 to preserve a significant amount of resources for the next generation. The study sparked a debate about how to work towards that reduction,6 and it most likely was one of the references for setting the target of the Kyoto protocol. Furthermore, it issued a strong warning against expanding the Western development model to developing countries.