UAL Social Design Institute

Rebecca Earley is a design researcher, UAL Chair of Sustainable Fashion Textile Design; and co-director/founder of the Centre for Circular Design. Her Social Design Institute position paper ‘From Sustainable to Circular to Social Textile Design Research' explains how shifting from a linear to a circular production system can drive a fairer and more responsible society.

Social Institute has launched an online learning series, sharing how social design methods can reinvigorate approaches to complex social, environmental and systemic challenges. Find out about the Introduction to Social Design short course and 3 new webinars and read project case studies.

Design for Dialogue: Valuing Doubt in an Age of Conviction: a Social Design Institute position paper by Pratāp Rughani responding to the toxic dialogue prevalent in today’s spaces when we disagree politically. It reflects on the possibility to design connections between us that nurture empathy and understanding.

UAL Social Design Institute recently announced a cross-UAL initiative to support ideas for small-scale social design and design for sustainability projects. The 3 design research proposals being taken forward this year will collaborate and co-create with London communities and Councils, to target local issues around COVID-19 immunisation, knife crime and youth violence

The AI Readiness Toolkit draws on research from the project ‘Next Generation Services through Collaborative Design’. It uses design thinking and scenario planning to enable firms to negotiate uncertainty around the use of AI in working practices.

Design Council has announced a major project to capture the vast contribution design is making to the UK - with the research to be carried out by UAL Social Design Institute and BOP Consulting. The findings will inform the ‘Design Economy 2021’ report and platform.