DEA 6800

Ethical Design: Engine of Positive Change

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Modern society faces various issues which are all closely related to the ethical aspects of design: humanitarian crises, labor exploitation, injustice in the workplace, loss of diversity, over-consumption, pollution, lack of transparency and pseudo-solutions to name a few. This course will discuss various ethical issues in design that impact individuals, community/society, economies, cultures, social dynamics, and the environment. Students will identify and analyze critical ethical problems and explore solutions through class activities.

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP, 2024SP, 2023SP

Learning Outcomes

• Think critically about the main fields of design practice, identifying the ethical challenges of each in terms of current environmental, social, and health crises.
• Investigate the impact of unethical design, production, and marketing practices on individuals, social groups, and the environment.
• Identify the difference between pseudo-solutions that mitigate the symptoms of harmful practices and those initiatives and approaches that address the harm caused by the current production and consumption systems.

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