FSAD 6800
Ethical Design: Engine of Positive Change
Modern society faces various issues which are all closely related to the ethical aspects of design: humanitarian crises, labor exploitation, injustice in the workplace, loss of diversity, over-consumption, pollution, lack of transparency and pseudo-solutions to name a few. This course will discuss various ethical issues in design that impact individuals, community/society, economies, cultures, social dynamics, and the environment. Students will identify and analyze critical ethical problems and explore solutions through class activities.
Topics
- Think critically about the main fields of design practice, identifying the ethical challenges of each in terms of current environmental, social, and health crises.
- Investigate the impact of unethical design, production, and marketing practices on individuals, social groups, and the environment.
- Identify the difference between pseudo-solutions that mitigate the symptoms of harmful practices and those initiatives and approaches that address the harm caused by the current production and consumption systems.
Official roster learning outcomes
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027
- Catalogue entry ↗
Catalogue variants
- Ethical Design: Engine of Positive Change · 3.0 · Graduate