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As the allied fields of design evolve in response to an increasing number of global challenges - inequity, social and political turmoil, disruptive climate-change, accelerating population growth - the question of how designers will address the needs of the most vulnerable among us is fundamental.

Public Interest Design (PID), an emerging area of specialization within the design professions, specifically considers the concerns of the vast majority of the world?s inhabitants who are historically under-resourced and ill-equipped to respond to the ?Grand Challenges? facing humankind.

With this mind, this introductory survey course has two aims:

First, to critically examine the range of environmental, economic, social, and ethical issues that underpins work with under-resourced domestic and international communities ? including how these concerns can be collectively addressed to become more resilient; and second, to investigate organizational models that seek to broaden the traditional scope of the allied design fields as disciplines and professions by advocating a humanitarian basis for practice.

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