Philosopher of Science Bruno Latour argues that the word design has evolved from meaning a superficial dressing up of objects to becoming a metaphor for social change, replacing “revolution” and “modernization”.
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, in times of great political struggle, Marx wrote of the need for social change in the form of political revolution. Later on, disciples of the global industrial age preached modernization as the key change process.
In those days, design meant a surface-treatment to functional objects; what we would call stylizing or decorating. Today, design encompasses an entire orientation to the world, what David Kelley calls design-thinking: creativity and the confidence to act on it. Latour echoes this idea.
it would be absurd to distinguish what has been designed from what has been planned, calculated, arrayed, arranged, packed, packaged, defined, projected, tinkered, written down in code, disposed of and so on. From now on, “to design” could mean equally any or all of those verbs.
In my view, design becomes social change when design-thinking becomes cultural, when communities of people learn to see their worlds not as finished products, but as prototypical works-in-progress that invite feedback, tinkering, and continuous improvement.