Common ground

A designer who engages in social problems is often an outsider, intervening in an environment with existing social structures. How can a designer contribute to finding durable solutions for social problems? What are the responsibilities of a social designer? And what role do power differences play? These questions were explored both theoretically and practically. The first by comparing social design to the field of conflict resolution, which studies how mediators could intervene in conflict areas. The latter by working and living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Amsterdam in collaboration with the collective Cascoland. The result is a list of principles, based of observations and experiences in the field. Most of them seem obvious, but in practice they are applied or even discussed too little. The principles are not meant as rules. Rather, they are a starting point for a discussion about the role and responsibilities of social designers when entering a context as an outsider