Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change
- Author
- Victor Papanek
- Year
- 2005
Victor Papanek's foundational, widely translated polemic against design that serves profit over real human need, arguing for sensible, socially responsible design suited to a world short on resources. First published in 1971, it argues that all people are designers and that the field should work as generalists across disciplines rather than narrow specialists.
Papanek's field-defining polemic — perhaps the most influential book ever written on socially responsible design — indicting design that serves profit over real human need. Foundational to the SDF's Ethics and Social-Responsibility mottos and its conviction that design is political.
First published in 1971 and revised in the edition referenced here, the book has been translated into twenty-three languages and is among the most widely read books on design. Victor Papanek examines designers' attempts to move away from the tawdry, unsafe, frivolous and useless product, arguing for sensible, responsible design suited to a world short on resources and energy. He argues that all people are designers, that design should serve real human need rather than profit, and that designers should work as generalists across disciplines rather than narrow specialists, a stance that has made the book a foundational text on design ethics and social responsibility.
Where to find it
Related in Community
Entries this one is tied to through the book.
Books and references
- Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming · both placed under Self-Commission
- Change by Design · discussed together in section 100
- Design, When Everybody Designs · discussed together in section 100
- Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design · discussed together in section 100
- The Design of Everyday Things · discussed together in section 100
- The Story of Stuff · discussed together in section 151
Academic papers
- Design for the real world · by the same author: V. Papanek
In the framework
- Design is a political act · concept
- Ethics
- Social Responsibility
- Human Component
Mentioned in
Books and references