Design ativismo ou design ativista? (Design activism or activist design?)

Journal article, 2021

This paper aims to discuss terminologies from a design field area, activist design or design activism, trying to stablish a recommendation for its use in Portuguese. This field area confronts the status quo in its practices, intending to influence public policies and cultural practices to reach fairer societies. To that, the author conducted a narrative literature review in canonical design texts which at some point confront the usual design practices and in the pioneer authors who used these terms worldwide and locally to understand the difference among them. A systematic literature review was also part of the research strategy to identify the prevailing use of the terms at the existent published works. The results point out that the term design activism is prevalent in English publications and activist design is used in the Portuguese ones. Based on the findings and discussions, the author recommends the use of the term design activism also in Portuguese, since it covers better its usage practices and meanings.