Editorial

Design philosophy: Amplifying the unheard

Journal Article (2026)
Author(s)

Fernando Secomandi (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)

Daniel Portugal (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)

Virginia Tassinari (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)

Philippe D’anjou (Florida Atlantic University)

Research Group
Creative Processes
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.175 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Research Group
Creative Processes
Journal title
Proceedings of DRS
Volume number
2026
Page Views
18
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Abstract

At a time of intersecting planetary, social, and epistemic crises, design philosophy must confront a central question: whose investigative ideas and knowledge count? This theme track, Amplifying the unheard, challenges the consolidation of design philosophy into predominantly North Atlantic and Anglophone frameworks. Rather than stabilising the field, it seeks to reconfigure it as a plural, contested, and situated space shaped by diverse cosmologies, practices, and epistemologies. The contributions gathered here move beyond inclusion toward transformation, foregrounding Indigenous, decolonial, posthuman, and practice-based approaches that reconfigure design’s conceptual and ethical conditions. Together, they demonstrate that amplifying unheard voices is not merely additive, but constitutive of new ways of thinking, teaching, and practising design philosophy.