Empowering Future Designers : Embedding Multi-Scale Social Analysis In Social Design Pedagogy Value Practices

Zhang, Linfu and Song, Linyun and Du, Xiyu and Duan, Zhipeng and Luo, Yiqun (2025) Empowering Future Designers : Embedding Multi-Scale Social Analysis In Social Design Pedagogy Value Practices. In: Reassessing the Social – Understanding Transformation. Proceedings of the Social Design Network Conference , Lucerne, Switzerland, 19-20 September, 2025 :. Hochschule Luzern – Design Film Kunst (HSLU DFK), CHE, pp. 153-162. ISBN 9783952542422

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Abstract

Social design has been conceptualised across multiple levels—micro social-individual, meso social-situated, macro social-structured, and even mega-utopian. However, when social issues at different levels intersect, young designers often struggle to clearly define the primary issues and practical scope—hindering their ability to serve as effective agents of social transformation. To respond to this challenge, this study first reviews macro–micro analytical frameworks in sociology and examines how social design can respond to different scales. This analytical framework is then applied and further developed through an educator's doctoral project of social design focused on improving migrant well-being in informal settlements in Shenzhen, China. This framework then travelled to the UK and was adapted for a teaching project with Chinese immigrant restaurants in Camberwell, London, where students from various disciplines applied it to explore migration-related challenges across social levels and generate design responses. This cross-national and cross-disciplinary pedagogical process underscores the need for social design educators to structure learning around concrete social issues and integrate design innovation with structured interdisciplinary approaches, enabling young designers towards a profound and achievable transformation.