From Consumer to Citizen: Engaging Students with Participative Methods in Design

This paper takes as its staring point a debate series organised by the University of the Arts London in 2013 to explore the relationship between enterprise and sustainability within the creative arts. Traditionally designers have attempted to generate and respond to the desire of consumers through the creation of products. Increasingly this is perceived as unethical in that it contributes to an unsustainable world. In response designers are drawing upon design methodologies
that refigure the consumer in different ways that include: user, public,citizen and co-designer. Such approaches draw upon participative methodologies requiring greater use of relational skills such as empathy and facilitation. This creates new challenges for design educators in terms of how to foster such skills which are tacit rather than formal. This paper will consider some concrete examples from design curricula to explore how educators are adapting teaching and learning approaches.