Papanek Symposium 2026

The Papanek Symposium 2026 is a collaboration between Design History and Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna, National Institute of Design, India (NID) design faculty and Quicksand Design, New Delhi.
The international hybrid event explores the practical, theoretical and social implications of contemporary design ‘in the field’; highlighting the imperative, and challenge, of shaping design and social policies from the ground-up. Comprising online expert presentations and panel discussions with onsite workshops in New Delhi, it offers a unique insight into the legacies of past development agendas and the futures for design in shaping worlds and tackling social inequalities.

Bringing together designers, design strategists and social innovators, the initiative addresses vital contemporary questions of design practice: What are the implications of design’s dispersed role as a mode of research, and the legacy of design and development models? How, if at all, are the forays design strategists make into local design cultures mutually beneficial? How are the asymmetrical power relations of corporate, NGO and small-scale social initiatives played out in practice? The event is aimed at designers, students, innovators, social scientists, anthropologists, ethnographers and policy makers. The symposium is supported by the FWF research project ‘Design Anthropology: Cold War Industrial Design and Development’ conceived and directed by Prof. Alison J Clarke, Design History and Theory.

About the event
Papanek Symposium 2026, Fielding Design: Reshaping Future Pasts is organised as part of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) research project “Design Anthropology: Cold War Industrial Design & Development” directed by Prof. Alison J. Clarke.
Organisation team: Alison J. Clarke, Tanishka Kachru, Babitha George & Shemal Pandya