Policy Days

Politics

Policy Day on 13 November 2026 at Goethe University Frankfurt will be the central meeting place for everyone who thinks of design as a political force within the framework of WDC 2026. Together with Deutscher Designtag (German Design Day) and the Normative Orders Research Centre, the conference day will focus on the field of institutional politics: How can design be integrated methodically, structurally and normatively into political decision-making processes – and how can politics itself be understood as a field of design?

Policy Day (AT) is divided into three tracks: DEBATE, REFLECT and ACT.

• In DEBATE, roundtable discussions will address the major challenges of our time in the interplay between design, politics and science.
• REFLECT forms the political and design science track, in which projects and papers are presented in panels and the questions raised in DEBATE are analysed, deepened and theoretically framed – both tracks refer to each other and complement each other in terms of content.
• Finally, ACT expands the conference with an exhibition of international best practice examples around Policy Day, showing how design is already having an impact as a political force.

Policy Day thus highlights the framework conditions and perspectives of a design policy for the UK, invites active participation and aims to encourage the integration of design as a natural part of government action in the future.

Participants:

Prof. Dr. Nicole Deitelhoff [Peace Research Institute], Thomas Hemmelgarn [Head of Unit of the EU Policy Lab], Prof. Dr. Sabine Junginger [Northumbria University], Prof. Regina Hanke [BEDA], Prof. Dr. Michael Saward [Democratic Design Framework], Prof. Dr. Markus Miessen [The Esh Clinics], Dr. Felix Petersen [Citizens Assemblies], Prof. Dr. Sven Siefken [Redesign Democratic Representation], Prof. Dr. Friedrich von Borries [Redesign Democratic Representation], Philipp Cartier [Gestaltungszentrale Politik], Prof. Dr. Anna Whicher [pdr, Cardiff]

Key topics:

• Design as a political and democratic competence
• Normative foundations of design and democracy
• Design in government & design policy
• Institutionalisation of design in political structures
• Democratic innovation formats (citizens' assemblies, new models of representation)
• Design and power: negotiation, conflict, legitimation
• European and international best practices (e.g. policy labs)
• From analysis to action: sustainable design policy for Germany

For further information and enquiries: felix.kosok@wdc2026.org

The day will be organised in close cooperation between Deutscher Designtag e.V., the Normative Orders Research Centre at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and World Design Capital Frankfurt Rhine-Main 2026.