In deficit-based thinking differences are seen as negative and factors that can retard progress. Designers sometimes frame design challenges through a deficit-based lens e.g. when they focus on the problems of a community.
Do you assume that the people that you’re designing for have a ‘problem’?
Do they also think they have a problem? How does your solution change if you focus on strengths instead of deficits?
Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women’s and men’s social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields.
How would a design concept change if it aimed to reduce gender inequality?
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.
Does your design concept recognize people’s individual ideas or rely on groupthink?
Transformative research is a synonym for emancipatory research.
It is a research framework that centers the experiences of marginalized communities, includes analysis of power differentials that have led to marginalization, links research findings to actions intended to mitigate disparities and has an agenda for change.
How is your work transformative?