Xing Guo

Xing Guo

30 December, 2024

Designer, Design activism, Social construction of reality, Anthony Giddens, Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Michel Foucault.

Design activism, as a cultural and political movement, emerged in the 1960s as a response to social, environmental, and political upheavals. This article examines the relationship between design activism and the social construction of reality, particularly focusing on how designers in the 1960s utilized design to challenge societal norms and construct new realities. Drawing on theoretical frameworks such as Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s social construction of reality, Michel Foucault’s power/knowledge, and Anthony Giddens's structuration theory, the article explores how design practices functioned as tools of resistance and cultural transformation. The article delves into key movements of the time, including the Whole Earth Catalog, the Radical Design Movement, and the experimental environments of Drop City, and how these design actions reflected the utopian struggles of the period. By examining design as a vehicle for social change, the article highlights the role of the designer not only as a creator of objects but as an activist shaping the world around them.

© 2024, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license