Editorial: Ethics as Creativity in Design

Designing requires enormous social and moral responsibility as our surroundings -full of products and services that we shape- in turn shapes the way we live. Not only do these products and services serve utilitarian functions and guide our actions, they also influence our norms and values in often unforeseen ways. The challenge of responsible design asks for active reflection on ethical issues.

Following a classical top-down approach, ethics may be perceived as restrictive, setting boundaries for what is allowed and what not. A recent proposal in philosophy of technology is the more constructive approach of the ethical accompaniment of technology development. We want to proceed further in that direction and are proposing a move towards what could be called ‘creative ethics’. We are exploring how a bottom-up approach of dialogue and deliberation about values and impact may foster inspiration and imagination for desirable futures and directions for design. In other words, we want to propose ethics as a fundamental driver for design, rather than an assessment criterion.

In this track we therefore welcomed papers that investigate or show how incorporating ethical reflection in the design process can foster creative solutions for future use of technology. Or the other way around: how design can cater for a creative approach to ethical deliberation. Completely in line with the theme of our track, the submitted papers show that there are multiple other creative ways to connect ethics and design.