Teaching Everything in Relationship: Integrating Social Sciences and Design in Teaching and Professional Practice

Abstract

The availability of social sciences courses in design schools does not automatically entail the integration of social scienc­es in design teaching. In order to achieve such integration, social sciences cannot be relegated to the task of providing information about the context in which design artifacts circulate. This contextual view of the social sciences is based on a ’regional topology’ of the social, which must be replaced by a ’network topology’ of the social, already enacted within design practice. Through a ’network topology’, the description of the relations to which artifacts take part emerges as the ground for collaboration between design and social sciences. Such ground for collaboration is key also for teaching social sciences in design schools. The introduction of two examples of assignments that consider the common ground of descrip­tion concludes the article.