Diseña (Jan 2023)

The Case for Minor Gestures

  • Danah Abdulla,
  • Pedro J. S. Vieira de Oliveira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.22.Article.6
Journal volume & issue
no. 22

Abstract

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This paper lays out the groundwork for a concept we define as minor gestures within design education. Moving away from a conversation centered around decolonization—a term, we argue, that has been co-opted to become a placeholder for equality, diversity, and inclusion, and tick-box exercises within academic institutions— we assert that minor gestures create the conditions for meaningful conversations on what it actually means to move towards decolonizing design education. Using examples from our own pedagogical practices, we sketch out and outline a proposition for minor gestures as theory-in-the-making, or an incomplete pathway towards meaningful, structural change.

Keywords