Reimagining the Social : Understanding the “marginal” of current research practices

Kwon, Nuri and Lopez-Galviz, Carlos (2025) Reimagining the Social : Understanding the “marginal” of current research practices. In: Reassessing the Social – Understanding Transformation. Proceedings of the Social Design Network Conference 2025 :. Hochschule Luzern – Design Film Kunst (HSLU DFK), CHE, pp. 70-83. ISBN 9783952542422

Abstract

Social design has an inclusive and participatory nature in ad dressing social challenges (Gutiérrez & Jurow, 2018), as it ultimately aims to address the challenges and needs of communities (Sarantou et al., 2024). A range of other disciplines besides design also work with marginalised and disadvantaged communities, often without recognising their work as a design endeavour, which we refer to here as social design research. Drawing on the ongoing Reimagining Research Practices (RRP) project at Lancaster University, UK, this paper examines how university researchers from a range of backgrounds and disciplines collaboratively design with communities. Through interviews and focus groups with university researchers, this re search reveals the complexities, tensions, and ethical considerations that emerge when researchers work in participatory and collaborative settings. By engaging with scholarship on social innovation (Manzini, 2015), de sign justice (CostanzaChock, 2020), and social futures (López Galviz & Spiers, 2022) and analysing discussions with participants, the paper examines how ‘communities’ within research projects are defined, how their agency is understood, and the extent to which different disciplinary perspectives shape the marginal. The paper concludes with seven working principles that contribute to encouraging more inclusive, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approaches and fostering new forms of solidarity to address marginal social issues across disciplines and institutions.