Design Innovation and Citizenship

Entry requirements

All applicants should normally have a good honours degree or equivalent professional practice. Previous study or experience need not be in an art or design discipline, and we welcome applications from any background

Months of entry

September

Course content

The Masters in Design Innovation & Citizenship at The Glasgow School of Art explores the relationship between design practice and contemporary society and encourages a design-led critique of the present. The programme asks design practitioners to step beyond their traditional professional and occupational role and to consider the broader application of design practices, as a means of formulating and articulating social change.

In challenging the purpose, methods and ambitions of current design practice, you will identify opportunities for new design activity, pioneer innovative forms of engagement and collaborate with citizens to generate responses to emerging problems, political issues and social phenomena.

Citizenship means being part of a community that has the power and capabilities to enact change when it is needed. We look at ways of helping people to take control of circumstances and processes that directly affect their everyday lives through the intelligent application of design thinking.

Graduates of Design Innovation & Citizenship will deploy their creative capacity beyond the world of consultancy or in-house design, embracing challenges within areas as diverse as public policy, private sector enterprise, citizen or social advocacy, public sector service provision, social enterprise and/or the voluntary sector.

The programme will bring its focus to bear in these specific areas:

• Contemporary civil society and its engagement with the Social, Public, and Private Sectors;
• Emerging issues in society – the challenges provoked by new scientific, technological, economic constructs and/or material possibilities;
• Extending the epistemological framework of design practice and the engagement with contemporary culture and the lives of its inhabitants.

It will encourage the following types of design activity:

• The making of artefacts, services, systems and experiences that respond to contemporary social relations;
• Articulating a critique of the cultural conditions presently shaping citizenship and the effects upon these caused by scientific or technological advances;
• The generation of new strategies, methods, tools and processes to contribute to social change prompted by economic, societal and ecological transformation;
• Strategies and activities involving direct political and social action affecting issues of change encompassing governmental policy, health, wellbeing and the lived environment.

You will also have the opportunity to engage with peers from international schools as part of the annual Winter School held at the campus in Forres. This seasonal event brings together students and faculty from leading institutions around the world for a two-week programme of lectures, workshops and networking opportunities that offers an insight into what a career in design as a global activity looks like.