In this conceptual paper, our aim is to deconstruct the conceptualization of design framing and establish its essentially political nature. The paper demonstrates the positionality inherent within frames insofar as frames articulate subordinated or dominant status, or express normative understandings until challenged. In doing so, we build a conceptualization of the political foundations of design framing practices and their implications for those contexts within which design operates. Consequently, we argue for dissensual counter-framing design practices that unsettle institutionalized norms and ideologies played out within frames, and through which a form of political agency is sociomaterially enacted.
Funding
Counter-framing design: Radical Design Practices for Sustainability and Social Change
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MIT Press) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/