Emerging Issues in Service Design

This special issue is dedicated to Emerging Issues in Service Design.The title acknowledges that service design, though still a young area of research, practice and even younger as a profession, has come a long way.With this special issue, we suggest that the field of service design is now entering a stage where discussions and research need to move beyond descriptions and justifications of what service design is and how it works.What is required to understand its future relevance and applications are studies on its impact and its place and role in business and society.It is time for a more nuanced consideration of the nature and purposes of different services; a regard for the contexts and situations they are supposed to address and transform -or not.This raises new questions, for example, concerning the influence of places and communities in service design projects and vice versa, questions about the responsibilities and ethics of service designers engaging with these.At the same time, it invites us to reflect on the suitability and ability of specific practices to deal in situ with context specific dynamics and realities, such as for example, organizational design