At the Swiss Design Network Conference 2021, I presented “Theorizing a queered design and the (im)possibility of design for the common good.” This paper explored the radical, chaotic, and deconstructive potential of queerness and queer theory in design.

Queer critiques can destabilize social structures, exposing hidden and overt biases. This makes a queer perspective particularly valuable for design, with the potential to inform major transitions and collective projects such as design for the common good. Yet the paper asks whether it is appropriate—or even possible—to use a queer lens in this way. Drawing on queer theory literature and scholarship at the intersections of queer studies and design, I argue that queerness must be employed authentically, that it cannot offer simple solutions to design problems, and that both the impossibility and undesirability of “design for the common good” through this lens must be acknowledged.