Design for sustainability in Portugal: A diachronic analysis of product design research

This study examines how approaches in sustainable design research are evolving and situates them within the European policy landscape. Using Portugal as a case, it explores how policies are interpreted, appropriated and operationalized in national educational systems. The analysis focuses on 57 master dissertations (2014–2024) in product, industrial and equipment design, combining qualitative coding with quantitative mapping to identify trends and tensions across approaches, materials, technologies and application contexts. Findings show that students’ work is partially aligned with European policies, particularly the circular economy agenda. Rather than replacing earlier approaches, new perspectives tend to coexist and co-evolve, mixing conventional materials and product development with waste valorization, experimental biomaterials, digital fabrication, and community-oriented or ecological projects. Future-oriented discourses such as speculative or transition design remain rare. Institutional clustering, local industrial ecosystems and place-based cultures strongly influence project directions, highlighting opportunities to strengthen interdisciplinarity, futures-oriented methods and systemic perspectives.