Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Designing a New Social Contract

Thursday, June 25, 2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Share the love for this talk
Designing a New Social Contract
Speakers: George Aye
Link:

Summary

Designers, advocates, and social sector leaders are working inside a social contract they didn't design, and one that is rapidly being rewritten by a well-organized, authoritarian right. ""Designing a New Social Contract"" argues that if we don't become intentional authors of a different future, we will be governed by someone else's blueprint for generations. Drawing on co-leading Greater Good Studio for 15 years, this talk surfaces how race and class quietly structure our current contract, how efforts by the authors of Project 2025 are codifying a new one, and why most people don't realize they've already been assigned a role in this system at birth. Rather than centering policy experts or design heroes, the talk presents aging and long-term care as a gateway issue and the hardest design constraint that, when solved, reverse-engineers the supports needed at every earlier stage of life.

Key Insights

  • Social contracts historically prioritize the needs of the dominant group, often marginalizing or harming others.

  • Neely Fuller Jr. identified two distinct social contracts in America: one protecting white Americans and one harming Black Americans.

  • Isabel Wilkerson's caste system concept helps frame social contracts as infrastructure deciding who receives protection or harm.

  • A new 'Epstein class' exists above traditional social contracts, effectively opting out by privately securing their needs.

  • People of color often receive conditional social contracts, contingent on compliance and usefulness.

  • Asian Americans are positioned in racial triangulation, used to perpetuate anti-Blackness while being treated as outsiders.

  • Universal long-term care is a critical but under-recognized social contract failure, jeopardizing dignity and intergenerational wealth.

  • Designing social contracts by starting from the desired end state (dignified aging) helps reverse engineer supportive upstream policies.

  • Changing the authors of social contracts to include marginalized communities fundamentally transforms their design and outcomes.

  • Systemic issues and capitalist frameworks often stifle community-oriented, policy-driven technological solutions in favor of individualized products.

Notable Quotes

"A social contract is what we expect of each other when we're in need."

"Without a social contract, life is nasty, brutish, and short, as Hobbes said."

"The authors of a social contract tend to put their needs first."

"In their new social contract, if your family isn't a white heterosexual married couple, you might be punished when in need."

"If you don’t understand how white supremacy works, everything else will only confuse you, said Neely Fuller Jr."

"Asian Americans are used as a wedge, a tool, to perpetuate anti-Blackness, as Claire Jean Kim explains."

"Most people assume Medicare covers long-term care, but it doesn't."

"Universal long-term care lets you age with dignity without losing everything you've built."

"Designing social contracts from the end backward allows us to rethink housing, wages, savings, and care."

"Those closest to the problem should be the co-authors of designing the social contract."

Ask the Rosenbot
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 3: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility and You
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Dave Malouf
The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 2)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Anna Poznyakov
Get The Most Out Of Stakeholder Collaboration—and Maximize Your Research Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Prayag Narula
How to Empower Your Designers to Do Good Research – And Why You Want To
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Daniel J. Rosenberg
Digital Medicine Design
2019 • Enterprise Community
Jennifer Kong
Journeying toward AI-assisted documentation in healthcare
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
William Newton
How to Lead With Data, and Without Data
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Alicia Mooty
Design Staffing Models
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Chris Govias
Perspectives on Civic Design
2021 • Civic Design Community
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Gretchen Anderson
Scaling the Human Center
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Mansi Gupta
Drawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Jon Fukuda
All the Ops: Successful cross-functional collaboration
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
How to Identify and Increase your "Experience Quotient"
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Brendan Jarvis
Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold

More Videos

Steve Sanderson

"Finding allies within an enterprise and demonstrating success is how you get a foothold for experimentation culture."

Steve Sanderson Alissa Briggs Jeff Gothelf Bill Scott

Discussion

May 14, 2015

Alana Washington

"When you need help, who do you go to in your network? Have you ever created a relationship map?"

Alana Washington

Theme 1: Introduction and Provocation

January 8, 2024

Deirdre Hirschtritt

"Recruiting for indigenous participants via Craigslist missed the unique role community ties play, so we regrouped and connected through community organizations."

Deirdre Hirschtritt Cesar Paredes Marie Perrot

Research is Only as Good as the Relationships You Build

November 17, 2022

Monty Hammontree

"The fastest way to gain influence is to get somebody else promoted."

Monty Hammontree

The Future of UX Research

December 3, 2020

Mary-Lynne Williams

"I put most of my retirement savings into making this happen because I didn’t think I was going to survive otherwise."

Mary-Lynne Williams

Exit Interview #4: From Product Design Leadership to Sound Healing

January 14, 2026

Max Gadney

"You have to be serious people making this business work, not just doing conferences and performative acts."

Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah Wickes

Assessing UX jobs for impact in climate

August 14, 2024

Ovetta Sampson

"Explainability requires transparency at every stage with governance ensuring fairness and equity in model building."

Ovetta Sampson

Research in the Automated Future

March 11, 2022

Nathan Curtis

"The design system is a living, breathing thing that should constantly evolve based on learning and user needs."

Nathan Curtis Nalini P. Kotamraju Jack Moffett Dawn Ressel

Discussion

June 9, 2016

Bria Alexander

"Midday panel brings together Corey, Deanna, Laura, and Lane to talk about everything wonderful so far in the day."

Bria Alexander

Theme 1 Intro

September 23, 2024