Designing in Action:

A Regional Model for Cross-Border Collaboration and Community Power

World Design Capital 2024 & UC San Diego Design Lab

Authors: James K. White & Olivia Gale

The White Paper describes how The Design to Action Networks (DANs) and civic design can move beyond workshops into real, durable impact. They reveal that change emerges not from a single breakthrough, but from the accumulation of collective experiments, shared language, and trust.

As civic crises grow more complex, communities everywhere will need new ways to design in action. The DANs provide both a model and an invitation: design can be a civic practice, and communities themselves are the most powerful designers of their futures. Click the thumbnail below to read the full paper: