Design Justice: Towards an intersectional feminist framework for design theory and practice

Critical Analysis

In this paper, the author introduces the theoretical framework of design justice. This builds on existing Black feminist arguments, and leverages the matrix of domination as a construct for further examining and critiquing existing design practices.

The author asserts that “design is key to our collective liberation.” This importance is evidenced by the breadth of design activities and associated inequalities, including the people involved, the processes involved, and the outputs generated.

Intersectionality is a view that race, class and gender are interlocking systems, and the intersection of these systems is particularly unique, underexamined, and systematically oppressed. Well-meaning arguments of fairness and equity are often “single-axis” and ignore those at the intersection of these interlocking systems. Associated with intersectionality is the “matrix of domination,” which identifies this interlocking system as an oppressed form on its own, rather than simply a sum of the parts of the others.

There are multiple levels in which oppression via design is experienced: a local level, a community level, and an institutional level. A framework of design justice forces examination of design impact at each of these levels, and this framework notes that because design is an amplified discipline, “institutions design objects, systems and processes that they then use to distribute benefits and harms across society.”

A meaningful contributor to the benefits and harms of design is the person doing the design work. The author claims that “’design,’ in a general sense, means problem-solving; all human beings participate in design.” Design justice, then, calls for a recognition of everyday design rather than simply corporate, amplified design. More directly, the author states that “all humans design, [and] design is not only the domain of paid experts.” Yet designers in institutions are financially rewarded, and “have achieved status as iconic figures who stand in for the promise of innovation and entrepreneurialism under information capitalism.”

At its core, design justice moves the conversation from an argument of equitability to one of accountability, and “in a nutshell: according to both the design justice principles and our tentative definition of design justice, the most valuable ‘ingredient’ in design justice is the full inclusion of people with direct lived experience of the conditions the design team is trying to change.” It is not an apolitical theory and approach; design justice, emphasizing intersectionality, means moving away from existing encoded values and towards new values.

Research Value

The value of this work in informing my own research is that it:

• Reinforces the view of designer exclusivity, and a corresponding reaction that everyone designs; includes this perspective in intersectionality, not only in corporate design contexts
• Shows a necessary skill shift from designer as craftsperson to designer as facilitator