The aim of this article is to develop knowledge and understanding that supports critical conceptual interventions in design innovation theory and practice. Existing discourses of design are dissonant and paradoxical, for example positioning design as at once value-free and virtuous. We explain various instances of dissonance by establishing relationships between modes of design, design discourses, and knowledge systems. We map and interpret four design discourses, revealing the plural, dynamic, and mutable nature they share. Our understanding of design in the context of social transformation varies according to how we relate to knowledge systems, how these are produced through discourses, and how the two inform distinct modes of design. We argue that dominant discourses and entrenched knowledge systems must be consciously and actively upended. For this, we present a framework for transformative action to foster encounters across discourses and engender new critical expressions of and interventions in design theory and practice
