What is "Socially Responsive Design and Innovation"?

This paper offers an account of socially responsive design in the form of design against crime and design for social innovation. First, we introduce the work and socially responsive design approach of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) at the University of the Arts London, developed and delivered via collaborative action research projects addressing issues of bag theft, bike theft and ATM crime. We also reflect on the principles of this approach and its connection to open and social innovation. Secondly, we locate our approach in the context of the wider social design landscape, considering other socially-led design approaches and describe how the socially responsive approach differs from that of socially responsible design. Finally, we discuss what Binder et al. (2012) describe as ‘design things’. We argue that design that is socially responsive can be understood as a ‘design thing’ that is both ‘public forming and public serving’ (Thorpe, 2014) and we also introduce ‘design feeling’ as a key contribution of design to the creation of the conditions for social change.