DESIGN DISKURS
Rashid Owoyele is a transdisciplinary designer, social innovation expert and researcher. In an interview with Prof. Dr Felix Kosok, Owoyele talks about the lack of risk-taking in Germany, how to redefine diversity and how design can become a force for greater justice.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: Rashid, let’s start with you. Your journey into transdisciplinary design is interesting. Can you talk a bit about what led you there – your focus on social innovation and service design, and how that intersects with communities and democracy?
Rashid Owoyele: I started with a passion for environmental science, which led me into public health – where I began questioning the limits of traditional disciplines. I eventually designed my own major and joined a graduate program at The New School in New York, right around Occupy Wall Street. There, as a “non-designer,” I had to figure out what I uniquely brought to the table.
Design education was highly competitive, but that pressure pushed me to focus on how design – especially social innovation – could address both environmental and social injustice. In 2015, I moved to Berlin, started consulting for major companies, and again ran into systemic limits – this time from capitalism itself. That’s when economic justice became the third focus in my work. Today, I see environmental, social, and economic justice as interconnected and essential to building a livable future.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: That’s interesting. Let’s focus on a specific problem first: design academia. How was your experience different in the USA compared to Germany? Or did you find similar power structures and frustrations?
Rashid Owoyele: It’s hard to sum up all my experiences in one answer – I’ve worked with thousands of professionals from different sectors. But one thing is clear: It influences how much psychological safety exists in creative spaces – how free people feel to take risks or imagine differently.
After ten years in Germany, I feel there’s a crisis of imagination in its institutions. But to be clear, I’m not saying Germans aren’t creative – far from it. What I mean is that there’s a deep-rooted assumption that certain systems must stay as they are. That rigidity is the real crisis. There’s a reluctance to try new models unless they’re perfectly efficient or scalable. But when we focus only on business outcomes, we forget about people, well-being, and the broader systems those outcomes depend on. That’s why, for me, transdisciplinarity is a political statement.
„There’s a reluctance to try new models unless they’re perfectly efficient or scalable.“
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: You’ve worked across many cultures. How have those experiences shaped your design practice, especially with community engagement?
Rashid Owoyele: Again, it’s hard to summarize, but here’s something I’ve observed – maybe it’s my bias, but I’ll say it anyway. The more privileged someone is, the less willing they are to create space for real change. If you're benefiting from the system, you're less inclined to imagine a different one. And the longer someone’s been considered an “expert,” the more rigid their thinking becomes. That kind of gatekeeping prevents progress.
We have to allow for change in order to see what works and what doesn’t. As long as we stay stuck in these rigid mental models, it’s hell for anyone who isn’t at the top. That’s why my work focuses on the laboring class – the majority of people globally.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: And what’s your experience with community engagement? When does it succeed, and when does it fail?
Rashid Owoyele: It succeeds when there are resources for it to sustain itself over time. One of the core challenges I see is that many initiatives – despite offering significant value to civil society – are not built on self-sustaining models. As a result, these institutions and the work they do for their communities often become dependent on external forces and decision-makers. This brings us back to a broader question about the economy and how we design the structures that support creative production. Ultimately, it’s about shaping the conditions that allow designers to meaningfully engage in envisioning and building the future.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: What strategies do you use to ensure genuine participation in co-creation processes? In your experience, what helps people feel able and empowered to enter that space?
Rashid Owoyele: I think there are several layers to the idea of "strategies." It can mean a range of tools or approaches, depending on the context. I try to be method-agnostic. I use whatever speaks to the people I’m working with. Different disciplines come with different cultural expectations – for instance, some people have a strong aversion to playful or creative exercises. Asking someone to draw a storyboard, for example, might trigger real anxiety because they’ve been taught to see drawing as something they’re “not good at” or “not allowed” to do. That’s why unlearning is such an important part of the process. It’s about creating space for people to reconnect with capabilities they may have been disciplined away from.
„Participation should involve a sustained investment from everyone involved.”“
One of the key lessons I've learned over the past 15 years of community-led work is that genuine participation requires ownership. If people don’t actively claim their role in a system – if the exchange isn’t mutual and meaningful – it’s hard to call it real engagement.
That also means rethinking how designers relate to the communities they work with. In Germany, I find the focus on user- or customer-centricity quite limiting. These terms already assume specific power dynamics, positioning designers to serve predefined needs rather than co-shape possibilities. If we don’t question these dynamics, we constrain the agency of design – and miss out on more equitable and imaginative futures.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: I think this ties directly into the power dynamics you mention. Often, designers act with good intentions – they don’t see themselves as reinforcing these imbalances. So with that in mind: in your view, what is the most pressing challenge when it comes to truly achieving diversity in these fields – and addressing the biases that continue to shape them every day?
Rashid Owoyele: This might not be the most popular view in some diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) circles, but I think it’s an important one if we want to create real buy-in and meaningful change. Over the past few years, I’ve been exploring how we can approach diversity, equity, and inclusion without it becoming entangled in culture war dynamics. Too often, DEI conversations are framed through identity politics in ways that trigger emotional responses and stall progress.
„Can we just be human together – and not be jerks about it?”
For me, the challenge is to rethink what we actually mean by "diversity." Are we just talking about visible identity markers – like gender – or are we considering something deeper? When the definition is unclear, it leaves too much room for emotional tension and defensiveness. But if we shift the conversation toward something like Eleanor Ostrom’s concept of institutional diversity, we can focus on systems and structures rather than individual identities. That shift moves us from "what I deserve" to "what we deserve" – a collective, human-centered framing.
When we apply this to how we design organizations, policies, and collaborative spaces, it opens up real opportunities to create more equitable systems. At the heart of it, the question becomes: Can we just be human together – and not be jerks about it? That mindset, I think, is crucial for enabling change, especially if we want to move beyond rigid frameworks and create space for shared, inclusive futures.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: That’s a great segue to design and democracy. Frankfurt RheinMain will become World Design Capital under the motto “Design for Democracy. Atmospheres for a better life” in 2026. You’ve worked on the idea of designing democracy – not just for democracy, but democracy as something designers can shape. How do you see that?
Rashid Owoyele: I realize I started talking about DEI and only really addressed the “D“ and the “E“ – diversity and equity. But equity, in the context of designing democracy, raises a fundamental question: who actually owns and controls the things we create? As long as people are locked into fragmented roles – consumer in one sphere, laborer in another, caregiver in yet another – without meaningful integration or agency, we’re trapped in power dynamics that pull us away from true democracy and self-determination.
Inclusion, the “I” in DEI, is often discussed without questioning what people are being included in. If you’re inviting people into systems that are fundamentally extractive, exploitative, or toxic, that’s not meaningful inclusion – it’s assimilation into harm. So designing democracy isn’t just about broadening access to existing structures; it’s about reimagining those structures altogether. We need new systems of practice that reject outdated management models rooted in control and manipulation, and instead foster transparency, shared ownership, and trust.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: And what’s the designer’s role in all this?
Rashid Owoyele: Designers today often work within institutions that limit their ability to drive real change. Our role, then, is not just to design within these systems, but to challenge and reimagine them – to help build new institutions that support experimentation, equity, and sustainable livelihoods.
One key shift is moving from user-centered to worker-centered design. In a forthcoming service design textbook chapter I’m co-authoring with Laura Penin, we explore how design can embrace more holistic views of people – not just as users or consumers, but as full individuals with diverse roles and needs.
Take data, for example – it's one of the most valuable resources today, yet individuals have no real ownership over it. Designers can help envision systems where people control their data and where essential digital infrastructure is treated as a shared commons. That’s a powerful opportunity to make design a force for greater equity.
“The more privileged someone is, the less willing they are to create space for real change.”
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: Let’s talk about another one of your big themes: decolonizing cultural production. How do you even begin to communicate that practically?
Rashid Owoyele: I don’t have the perfect answer. How do you get people to see that they’re part of a labor movement, or that they have more power than they think? And how do you do that when everyone’s scared of losing their jobs to AI or becoming irrelevant?
We’re often made to fear our own power, and specifically in design, there’s a growing anxiety that our skills are becoming irrelevant – that we’ll be replaced or left behind. But I don’t think that’s the case. In fact, as more exploitative technologies become normalized, the capacity to think like a designer – critically, creatively, and systemically – is going to become even more valuable. We need people who can question the status quo, challenge dominant material realities, and imagine better alternatives. That’s where the real potential lies.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: I completely agree – and I think the real challenge now is: how do we educate design workers to recognize themselves as workers, not just as artists, geniuses, or entrepreneurs? It’s about shifting the mindset toward understanding our role within larger systems and seeing ourselves as interconnected. I do feel that change is starting, slowly. Can we accelerate that?
Rashid Owoyele: I would love to see that shift happen – but I think a key ingredient is often missing: space for imagination. Psychological safety is crucial – the freedom to test ideas, to fail, and to rethink. Without that, real change in education is difficult. This isn’t just a German issue, but it’s especially pronounced here. If institutions continue to make people feel unsafe or constrained, we end up clinging to old assumptions about what must stay the same. That limits what’s possible.
We also tend to prioritize efficiency over effectiveness. Even the current push for "impact" often misses the mark by trying to standardize it, rather than embracing the complexity needed to truly understand systemic change.
Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok: It comes down to imagination and empathy – being willing to place yourself in someone else’s perspective and really listen.
Rashid Owoyele: Yes, and I think there’s too much misplaced pressure to “understand everything”—when the real power lies in recognizing that you don’t. That’s why community-based and participatory design is so incredibly important to me. It’s not about being the expert in the room – it’s about facilitating shared knowledge, being open to what you don’t know, and valuing experiences outside your own.
That’s the shift we need: away from disciplined expertise knowledge and toward humility, openness, and collaboration. Only then can we begin to create systems and experiences that are truly transformative.