HSLU hosts Social Design Network Conference 2025

Reassessing the Social — Understanding Transformations
18–20 September 2025

The bi-annual conference of the Social Design Network will bring together scholars from various disciplines to explore how design responds to and shapes our understanding of crises by encompassing a range of activities and interventions.

Social Design is profoundly shaped by the evolving dynamics of society. Our understanding of the ‘social contract’ directly impacts the possibilities and roles of design. In recent decades, we have witnessed the beginnings of profound societal transformations — from increasing diversification and political polarisation to climate adaptation, shifts in capital and privilege, and digitalisation. As societies evolve, so must our practices, values, ethics, and methods.

How can we ensure that Social Design remains adaptable, reflexive, and accountable, and to whom? What and who should our practice focus on? What alliances should we forge? What imaginaries and frameworks should we adopt or challenge? And what new skills, literacies, and tools are needed to address these challenges in a meaningful, future-oriented way?

The Social Design Conference 2025 will explore these and other urgent questions. A wide range of practice- and theory-based contributions are welcomed, including but not limited to papers, visual essays, projects, workshops, and interventions, within the following tracks:

Diversity and New Actors
New Conflicts, Old Identities
Shifting Lines of Capital and Privilege
Design in Datafied Societies
Pedagogies for (Eco-)Social Transformation

18 September 2025: PhD Symposium
Location: HKB Bern, Switzerland
Specific Call and additional details to follow

19-20 September 2025: Social Design Network Conference
Location: HSLU Lucerne, Switzerland

More information on the conference and the soon-to-be published programme can be found on the conference website.

Organising Team:
Andreas Unteidig (HSLU), Bianca Herlo (HSLU), Paola Pierri (HKB)