New Zealand’s international reputation as a ‘social laboratory’ emerged at the end of the 19th century as a result of innovative labour relations, universal suffrage for women and social welfare legislation. This reputation for social innovation inflects the powerful cultural myth of #8 wire–technological innovation based on rapid adoption and adaptation of industrial production to the diverse environmental conditions of southern islands remote from the major industrial centres.

This issue asks in what ways has design contributed to, or undermined innovative social change in the past, what is design’s present role in terms of social innovation, and how might design work constructively with other disciplines in enhancing human development and advancing social and environmental wellbeing?

We welcome contributions addressing any aspect of design and its relationship to regional, national or trans-national social experiments in the past or present.