Futures Thinking in Design Systems and Social Transformation

Dear Colleagues,

Complex global challenges, such as pollution, global warming, pandemics and financial crises, drive concern about the uncertain future of nature and society. In engaging with large-scale problems, the design community recognizes the need for design foresight to accomplish long-term goals. Future literacy and design foresight are becoming indispensable in designing systems and play a vital role in enhancing social resilience. The challenges brought about by the changing world due to human intervention and the globalization crisis promote the exploration of new, innovative solutions. Social and humanistic speculation and guidance of sustainable direction should not be ignored. Future thinking combines foresight, speculation and design fiction to identify the causal relationship of complexity and find innovative paths of innovation to deliver social well-being and economic prosperity. Future-oriented design is used to tackle challenges in traditional field and application modes for enterprises, society, education and industry, and in shaping a network for global sharing and co-creation. The aim is to provide a compass guiding the development of society toward sustainable, equitable and desirable futures, and to make strategic decisions vital to social transformation. This Special Issue is mainly focused on discussing the action and strategy of design foresight and analyzing successful cases and practical examples of design futures with the aim of futurescaping for current social transformation and innovation.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Integrating future thinking into design research frameworks and models;
• Design methods for the study of social futurescaping;
• Future-oriented design practice;
• Explorations of the relationship between design futures and social transformation;
• Reviews and iteration of future thinking in design systems;
• Cultivation of future literacy in design innovation;
• Multiple voices and agencies in envisaging and implementing social futures with design strategy;
• Anticipatory assumptions in designing resilient and sustainable futures;
• Future perspectives of social transformation from philosophy, well-being, society and education;

References

1. Barbara, A., & Scupelli, P. (2021). Teaching to dexign futures in cities. Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, 2, 112-116.
2. Fu, Z., & Zhou, Y. (2020). Research on human–AI co-creation based on reflective design practice. CCF Transactions on Pervasive Computing and Interaction, 2(1), 33-41.
3. Scupelli, P. (2019). Teaching to transition design: a case study on design agility, design ethos, and dexign futures. Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación. Ensayos, (73), 109-130.
4. Kelliher, A., & Byrne, D. (2015). Design futures in action: Documenting experiential futures for participatory audiences. Futures, 70, 36-47.
5. Candy, S., & Kornet, K. (2019). Turning foresight inside out: An introduction to ethnographic experiential futures. Journal of Futures Studies, 23(3), 3-22.
6. Zaidi, L. (2019). Worldbuilding in science fiction, foresight and design. Journal of Futures Studies, 23(4), 15-26.

Dr. Zhiyong Fu
Dr. Anna Barbara
Dr. Peter Scupelli
Dr. Yanru Lyu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.