Collaborative Book Review: Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need

Welcome to the Collaborative Book Review of Sasha Costanza-Chock’s Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, published by MIT Press in 2020.

Throughout the Spring 2022 semester, around a dozen HASTAC Scholars came together to critically and thoughtfully engage the ideas presented in Design Justice, which takes an intersectional feminist approach to design in theory and practice. The collaborative book review process embraces the notion - central to both Design Justice and the mission of HASTAC - that all knowledge is collectively produced. As such, the Scholars participated in multiple rounds of peer feedback with each other over the course of the semester, modeling what a community of practice might look like in the academy. Moreover, in their reviews, the Scholars not only respond to, but elaborate on the book’s main arguments by bringing to bear their diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives and introducing these ideas to broader audiences. This collection thus grows our collective understanding of design justice, while potentially extending its practical applicability. 

Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need is available for free download here. Stay tuned for an interview with Sasha Costanza-Chock led by HASTAC Scholars in Fall 2022!

Authors of the forthcoming interview with Dr. Costanza-Chock also include R. Baker, Galen Bunting, and Nanditha Krishna.

Collection editor: Hilary Wilson, HASTAC Scholars Co-Director