[Commlist] M/C Journal. Special Issue: ‘Design’

Call for Papers

M/C Journal. Special Issue: ‘Design’

Editors: Nicole Sully, Timothy O’Rourke, and Andrew Wilson (University 
of Queensland)

Deadline: Full Papers 11 June 2021

*'design'*

Between its broader sense of intent and that of making a drawing or 
plan, design appears to be expanding in both meaning and its 
application. Design is well understood when related to our material 
culture, where the medium often bears the imprint of the designer/s. 
Design has moved relatively seamlessly from the physical into the 
digital world. It makes sense that someone designs the applications that 
we use and that digital content, just as much as a poster, requires 
design. Design activities are rarely inseparable from a market economy, 
but the language of design has infiltrated business more broadly. Design 
processes are used in seemingly novel ways across business and 
governments seeking to improve their digital and real-world services. 
New usage related to users, perhaps unknowingly, replicates the 
interests of designers in the 1960s who sought a more equitable 
solutions to social problems experienced in the physical world. What 
loosely unites these disparate design disciplines diachronically and 
today is a shared sense that design improves the world we live in. But 
even with the best intentions, design does not inevitably lead to a 
better world. Our desire for stuff, and the social status this might 
bring, has helped to elevate designers into celebrities, but also 
heightened distinctions between the copy and the original. Design, 
either analogue or digital, has unintended consequences. These include, 
among other examples, the environmental degradation that emerges from 
design consumption through to the carbon footprint of the digital world.

This issue of M/C Journal seeks to critique design across its range of 
disciplines. Contributors are encouraged to engage critically with 
varied senses of design as method, practice and product, examining your 
own disciplines and research interests. The editors welcome papers that 
explore, but are not limited to:

• Cross-cultural design

• Design cultures

• Design disciplines

• Design economy

• Design evaluation

• Design methods

• Design politics

• Equitable design

• Indigenous design

• Over-design

• Regulating design

• Theories of design

• Unintentional design

Prospective contributors should email an abstract of 100-250 words and a 
brief biography to the issue editors via 
(design /at/ journal.media-culture.org.au) 
<mailto:(design /at/ journal.media-culture.org.au)>. Abstracts should include 
the article title and should describe your research question, approach, 
and argument. Biographies should be about three sentences (maximum 75 
words) and should include your institutional affiliation and research 
interests.

Articles should be 3000 words (plus bibliography) and submitted via 
journal website. All articles will be double-blind refereed and must 
adhere to MLA style (6th edition). Please refer to journal website for 
Author Guidelines.

Details

• Article deadline: 11 June 2021

• Release date: 11 Aug. 2021

• Editors: Nicole Sully, Timothy O’Rourke, and Andrew Wilson

Please submit articles through this Website. Send any enquiries to 
mailto:(design /at/ journal.media-culture.org.au) 
<mailto:(design /at/ journal.media-culture.org.au)>.

Web 
Link:https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/information/authors#design 
<https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/information/authors#design>


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