Introduction

Designers and design scholars often look to other fields for methods and theories to inform their work. But the articles in this special issue, “The Design Turn,” take a different perspective: They explore how other fields might draw from and contribute to design. In doing so, they move beyond simplistic applications or critiques of design and instead articulate design issues with issues of history, geography, and political science. The result is a pragmatic inquiry: a structured investigation of diverse and seemingly divergent parts into coherent wholes that provide novel and meaningful insights into the relationships between design, society, and culture. Each article contributes to design and also to the authors' original disciplines. To use a phrase from participatory design, this leads to mutual learning.This design turn, as described by the authors, covers more ground than can be addressed in just one special issue. Similar work appears throughout the humanities and social sciences. What is distinctive about this collection of articles is that it is being presented from within design discourse, published in a design journal. Publishing from within design is important for several reasons. One of the roles of design research and design studies is to shrink the gap between theory and practice. Since the beginning of Design Issues, we have worked to make the journal relevant to professional designers. These articles are meant for both scholars and practitioners, and they are more readily accessible here than in a journal of sociology or anthropology. Publishing within design also helps strengthen the design research and design studies communities, allowing us to develop methods and theories specific to our field. With this special issue on “The Design Turn,” we hope to provide insights that prompt designers to consider the expanded possibilities and consequences of their work and advance empirical and theoretical understandings of design's complex role in contemporary culture and society.