Critical Posthumanism can help us understand design and the worlds it makes and is made of: How does design reinforce contemporary notions of “normal” or “accepted” human embodiment and how can it challenge normative ways of being? How have the value systems at the basis of nature-culture, mind-body, or gender binaries shaped design? What political, social, environmental, or technological critiques can develop at the nexus of design and posthumanism? What are the possibilities and limits of designerly engagements with critical posthumanism for more socially and environmentally just futures?

Critical posthumanism is a theoretical approach that challenges the universal entitlement and privilege inherent in a specific image of the human. A critical posthumanist perspective reflects on the human subject increasingly destabilized by digital media technologies, resists the purported human exceptionalism among the species, and scrutinizes the social power relations in which it is embedded. It is related to many fields of study that critically historicize, contextualize, or investigate power dynamics: gender studies, queer feminist theory, disability studies, eco feminism, critical race theory and more. Exposing the value systems and worldview that historically have shaped and continue to inform design is key to addressing a multitude of design and design-related practices.