Questions of behaviour, humanity, and practice

Questions of behaviour, humanity, and practiceOne of many reasons I am honoured to be co-editor of The Design Journal is the breadth and depth of disciplinary approaches enclosed in each issue.I am struck by the diversity of designed approaches which this 27.2 issue holds, continuing a tradition amongst contributors, examining how the industries and practices of design evolve.Within this issue, we find the tacit themes within all design disciplines, such as cultural or community idiosyncrasies, which may affect the ability to educate or engage and how we use design methodologies to understand the world around us.The need for our shared design-centric disciplines to understand and communicate is paramount as a practice in our 'globalized village'.However, we also might need to recognize that how we created and designed in the past is not necessarily how we must proceed in the future.As Hugh Aldersley-Williams pointed out in the early 90s, there is a big difference between the ability to globally distribute a product and the fundamental understanding of a place or community when designing anything.The adage 'think global, act local' as a common parlance has been around for quite a while in relation to economic development, as it was initially intended as a way to approach the balance of global branding and localized taste.So much of what and how we produce products, however, remains deeply entrenched in a universalist and homogenous one-size-fits-all mentality and based on unfettered growth.We may need to ask the question how big is too big?How do we utilize the best benefits of our global community and common humanity while balancing our proximal community's unique qualities and uniquely achieved context of contact?Our collective humanity increasingly cannot ignore the bizarre weather changes that evidence the climate crisis, political and cultural conflict which wastes time, lives, and resources, or as we collectively confront economic and social inequalities that inhibit progress.How do we engage with technology and the opportunities to achieve a new, innovative, and better future?How do we engage with communities to ensure careful consideration and sustainable healthy resource management?Design offers a methodology to approach these seemingly wicked problems systematically and methodically.The Design Journal offers consistent and dedicated attempts at engagement by using the many tools defined as 'Design' to address how to best attempt this careful negotiation of global reach and local connection.To begin this issue, Emrah € Ozturan adeptly explains the now-established use of designers as representative of an embodied zeitgeist within a culture in 'Populist influences on design: Mediation of a new designer profile in Turkish advertising discourse'.€ Ozturan describes the contemporary influence the image of designers has on culture and politics by analyzing three advertisements for Turkish products.There is an implied sense of dedicated consideration within these characterizations in Turkish advertising, whether designing actual products or the creative narrative surrounding that product, which affords a type of authority of purpose.While this paper describes a populist discourse from a specific culture, the similarities ring true