A slippery cousin to ‘development’? The concept of ‘impact’ in teaching sustainability in design education

ABSTRACT In design, aspirations of ‘development’ and ‘innovation’ are now scrutinised to redress persistent market-led practice. Socially and environmentally responsive pedagogies can shift students’ mindsets to consider the impacts of design practices on the planet’s complex systems and societies. At the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, four transdisciplinary experiential ‘Impact Lab’ design units actively address this within a reimagined degree. Qualitative action research explores students’ interpretations of ‘impact,’ and results reveal their interpretations are diverse, despite theoretically strong grounds, reflecting only an emergent understanding of the wider sustainability and design justice agenda. The argument is made that ‘impact’ as a loaded term in our context may inadvertently restrict the development of such understandings. This endorses the need for ongoing critical interpretation and usage of the term, and urges that caution be exercised in how it manifests through pedagogies and curricula.