ABSTRACT
To examine the intersections of design and displacement (two capacious terms that evoke disparate notions of materiality and mobility), Design, Displacement, Migration: Spatial and Material Histories has gathered a collection of scholarly and creative voices—spanning design, art, and architectural history; design studies; curation; poetry; activism; and social sciences. The introduction traces the book’s origins and evolution and advocates for the necessity of using a broad historical lens to examine the compounded histories of displacement and design. The first part examines the ways design induces displacement, by addressing scholarship that has focused on design’s role in colonialism, modernity, and the capitalocene; in processes of urban displacement; and in the creation of borders, passports, and camps. The second part discusses the way scholarship has addressed design emerging in displacement, focusing on the work of designers in exile, border thinking, and the notions of agentic design and emplacement. Lastly, the introduction presents the ways the book contributes to new scholarship by recognizing emerging spatial and material knowledge in conditions of displacement, desire-led research, and activist scholarly efforts to bridge between academia and praxis.
