Design Thinking and the Promise of Utopia

This paper considers the field of Design Thinking using the concept of utopia. This concept is applied loosely and suggestively to try to raise questions about how Design Thinking is represented in pedagogic terms and how it is connected
to and informed by the wider and more ‘populist’ discursive sphere. Design Thinking is emerging as an academic discipline yet it is also a ‘buzzword’ characterised by hyperbole and overblown claims to its impact and efficacy. We might assume that Design Thinking in the classroom is informed by rigorous academic discipline and therefore distinct from the sphere of the buzzword. But are they distinct? How do the two relate to one another in practice? This paper will suggest that there is evidence of seepage between the academic and popular language and that the utopian project found in populist discourse does inform academic accounts as well.