Abstract
Design research can help us understand, dismantle, and transform unjust systems and the material realities that they create, while guiding us towards transformative, radical futures yet to be designed. However, design research can also be a site of harm and trauma. We argue that a “do no harm” guiding principle to ethics in design research is insufficient. Rather, design researchers need to reckon with and prepare for the likelihood that they will cause harm to the people and communities they engage in their design processes. We draw from the ethics of care and accountability theorized and explored by feminist thought in order to delineate a trauma-responsive design research model. This model can help design researchers take accountability as they work to minimize, acknowledge, and repair harm. Moreover, establishing a praxis of trauma responsiveness as an ethical imperative in design work can help design researchers amplify the liberatory potential of their practice.
Keywords
design research; ethics; harm; trauma responsiveness
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.748
Citation
Fathallah, S., and Caridad Rabelo, V. (2024) Trauma responsiveness by design: Towards an ethic of care and accountability in design research, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.748
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Trauma responsiveness by design: Towards an ethic of care and accountability in design research
Design research can help us understand, dismantle, and transform unjust systems and the material realities that they create, while guiding us towards transformative, radical futures yet to be designed. However, design research can also be a site of harm and trauma. We argue that a “do no harm” guiding principle to ethics in design research is insufficient. Rather, design researchers need to reckon with and prepare for the likelihood that they will cause harm to the people and communities they engage in their design processes. We draw from the ethics of care and accountability theorized and explored by feminist thought in order to delineate a trauma-responsive design research model. This model can help design researchers take accountability as they work to minimize, acknowledge, and repair harm. Moreover, establishing a praxis of trauma responsiveness as an ethical imperative in design work can help design researchers amplify the liberatory potential of their practice.