Design and territories | belongings and transformations
Issue 5 of MD Journal aims at investigating the relationship between Design and territories, considering the potential of this relationship within the transformation processes under way in our societies, in the production and consumption of goods and services and in the production of social innovation by means of new forms of aggregation and participation.
One of the key focuses of the investigation is the way in which living environments express their changes, by means of a spirit of conservation and drive geared towards innovation, amid local specificities and universal values.
After an extended period during which the world-wide amalgamation of cultures had taken on a prevalently positive connotation, we are now undergoing a time whereby this dimension is being questioned as a cultural, social and also a political value, and it is overcome by attention towards elements of specificity which, starting with the various places and the different forms of aggregation, are capable of defining new identities and renewing the value of existing ones.
During this phase, by rethinking the very idea of progress which has led to considering in a new light the concepts of tradition and development, a new conception of the idea of territory has emerged, seen as the outcome – complex, stratified and dynamic – of an historic process, like an unstable living organism in its ongoing transformation but, indeed because of this, capable of expressing an innovative design potential.
The rediscovered centrality of territories makes it necessary to consider the topic also in relation to the major phenomena of modernity. Natural disasters, wars and related migration phenomena have brought to the light the fragility of living environments, which are in pursuit of the difficult balance between the natural component and the anthropic one.
The topics related to territories are no longer reserved solely to investigation by town planners, they instead concern design disciplines across all levels and to all extents, involving the production of consumables, communication, and services.
This reacquired awareness of the relationship between territory and product (material and virtual) makes a set of relations perceptible, which on the one hand lead to objects overcoming their de-contextualised nature, and on the other allow the conception of the territory as an asset that is not only socio-cultural and natural, but also economic and therefore linked to the specificity and characteristics of production.
Through connection to the new digital technological networks, environments have taken on a dynamic personality, with the possibility of valuing their qualities in a globalised dimension, whereby territories, open and interconnected, are subject to contaminations of local specificities and have the possibility of contaminating themselves.
The new possibilities of doing business, which are expressed in the overcoming of the equality that assimilates people with consumers and in the rethinking of the public and private boundary, where public good is not “no-one's land”, but a common good to be looked after, are just some of the evident signs of the new territorial transformations.
Actions such as urban gentrification, which concerns different thematic areas, from the cultural dimension to the economic one, naturally via the political one, see an increasing involvement of people through participation initiatives, where the professional designer takes on the role of mediator and interpreter of needs and desires.
This project planning produces unprecedented solutions and meanings, capable of creating innovation; think of the relations between food and territories aimed at re-establishing the bond between city and countryside, the creation of new food networks based on seasonality and proximity, of the innovative shapes of mobility (sharing) and the residential models based on systems of neighbourly collaboration (co-housing), the employment models established upon the collaboration of synergies in co-working spaces.
The role of design in relation to the territorial context is therefore changing profoundly, and if the new thematic challenges appear evident, it spontaneously springs to mind how and whether the centrality of design can remain that way.

Here are some possible thematic areas worth further investigation:
– Design as a connection tool between community and territories
– Valuing excellences and territorial brands
– Global cultural heritage: local cultural heritage and related global networking
– Territorial business networks and global networks
– Transition territories. Migration phenomena: challenges, conflicts, opportunities
– Design with and for Countries in unindustrialised geographical areas
– Design and new craftsmanship as tools for valuing territorial specificities
– Good practices for valuing, through design, local production supply chains
– Design as a tool for the translation of territorial marketing plans
– Media-enhanced territory: new media, geo-location and production of virtual territories
– Design of communication and urban and territorial dimension
– Technologies and advanced production processes for territorial production sectors

Important dates:
Abstract submission January 5th, 2018
Notification of Abstract Review Results February 7th, 2018
Submission paper March 26th, 2018
Notification of Peer Review Results May 5th, 2018
Submission of final version May 20th, 2018
Publication June 2017

#3 Issue Editors:
Giuseppe Lotti, University of Florence
Eleonora Trivellin, University of Florence

Publishing process
Researches are invited to send to the Scientific Section of the MD Journal an abstract of 6000 maximum 8000 characters (including spaces and references), written in Italian (foreign authors may write in English), by 5th January 2018.
The abstract, written in a clear, succinct manner, must be pertinent to the topic of the Call, set forth the objectives and purposes of the paper and be accompanied by 5 keywords that highlight the project’s main points and references about the main topic, prepared according to the editorial guidelines.

Abstracts must be sent to mdjournal@unife.it
Authors will receive a notification of acceptance by 7th February 2018.
After that, authors must send the articles (including all documentation, see link below), by 26th March 2018, to the same email address: mdjournal@unife.it

Following the review by peer referees, comments will be notified to authors by 22th May 2018 and they will have to send the final version of the article to mdjournal@unife.it, by 20th May 2018.
The e-version of the open-class MD Journal [5] 2018 is free and will be published on June 2018.
The magazine will also be printed and sent to the authors and to the main national libraries.

Nature and style of MD Journal scientific articles.
Please be reminded that scientific articles must comply with the following:
- definition and development of research topics;
- peer to peer argumentative intersubjective structure and style
- introduce connections and comparisons with established knowledge
- explicit references (notes, bibliography, sources), referring to MD Journal guidelines.

Please refer to http://www.materialdesign.it/en/journal-md//_68.htm
Articles must be written in Italian; only foreign authors may write in English.
Authors must comply with the Editorial Rules.
Please refer to http://www.materialdesign.it/en/journal-md//_61.htm