Call for Papers for a Special Issue
She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation
Future Making
Guest Editors: Alice Comi, Michael Shamiyeh, Luigi Mosca
Call for Contributions
As we design new products, services, business models and market segments, we often have the future in mind. This special issue exploresfuture making, a set of practices for imagining and realizing a situation that does not yet exist. Future making engages with the people, places, and materials at hand to “make sense of possible and probable futures, and evaluate, negotiate and give form to preferred ones” (Whyte, Comi, &Mosca, 2022, p. 1). The aim of this special issue on future making is to explore how imagined futures are made possible in the present, as time unfolds from the present into the future.
Achieving this aim involves pushing the boundaries of knowledge beyondspeculation and speculative design. The latter is a form of critical practice in design (Malpass, 2013), popularized by Dunne and Raby (2013) with their seminal book Speculative Everything.
Speculative design has attracted considerable attention in design research, with scholars exploring its methods and practices (Auger, 2013), including the use of thought experiments (Barendregt & Vaage, 2021), spectacles and tropes (DiSalvo, 2012), fiction (Ahmadpour, Pedell,Mayasari, & Beh, 2019) and satire (Malpass, 2013). As a critical practice,speculative design encourages reflection on alternative ways of being, using design to construct witty or even whimsical narratives.
However, speculation about the future does not necessarily lead to itsrealization. While Dunne and Raby argue that “by speculating more, at alllevels of society, and exploring alternative scenarios, reality will becomemore malleable and, although the future cannot be predicted, we can help set in place today factors that will increase the probability of more desirable futures happening” (Dunne & Raby, 2013, p. 6), we contend thatspeculation is not sufficient in itself, and might leave some open and unanswered questions. For instance, questions such as who is the “we”that would act as an agent of change – is it the designers, society or humanity as a whole – remain largely unanswered in speculative design (Tonkinwise, 2014). In this special issue, we therefore focus on futuremaking.
Where speculative design aims to prompt reactions about alternative ways of being, future making is primarily concerned with the realization,consolidation and implementation of such futures – for instance by testing and validating their underlying assumptions, with the active involvement of affected stakeholders (Comi & Whyte, 2018; Shamiyeh, 2014). Future making sets out to create better futures, by leveragingreflective inquiry (Whyte et al., 2022), participatory practices (Luck, 2018), and design for the ‘real world’ (Papanek, 1972). In so doing, future making emphasizes not just imagination, but also craft work as well as bodily and sensorial engagement with the materials at hand (Comi &Whyte, 2018; Pettit, Balogun, & Bennett, 2023; Thompson & Byrne, 2021).
Future making differs also from rationalistic approaches to predicting thefuture (Wenzel, 2022). It acknowledges that the future (as objective time) is uncertain and undetermined (Esposito, 2024), and avoids attempts at predicting what such future will or might be. The emphasis is placed notso much on the future as objective time, but on the ‘lived experience’ (Ericson, 2014) of actors orienting themselves towards the future and crafting a course of action for the future. Although actors cannot determine the future (as objective time), their future-making practices are consequential in that they trigger a series of actions and decisions. Still,the actual outcome or ‘real future’ is beyond their control, being shaped bya multitude of factors that are unknown at the time of future making (Esposito, 2024).
Future making is a challenging endeavor. It is fraught with difficulties thatarise, for instance, from conflicting interests between the actors at stake, and/or their lack of shared understanding of the imagined futures(Thompson & Byrne, 2021; Whyte et al., 2022). It also requires actors and their stakeholders to “develop an evolving and commonly shared consciousness” (Shamiyeh, 2016, p. 214), through active engagement inthe construction and negotiation of imagined futures. Further complexity arises from fundamental questions surrounding future making: who should participate in crafting the futures at stake? What futures arepreferable, and by whom? How to make futures that are desirable and sustainable for humankind, the environment, and the future generations? How can futures in the making tackle, rather than contribute to, systemic inequality?
Addressing these questions is important to ensure that future makingdoes not end in utopian dreams (Ibach, 2023), dystopian realities, project failures (Sage, Dainty, & Brookes, 2014), escalating indecision (Denis, Dompierre, Langley, & Rouleau, 2011), or fantasy plans (Clarke, 1999).Hence, this special issue invites scholars to address questions aboutrealizing imagined futures. Future making is interdisciplinary in nature. We welcome contributions
from many disciplines and fields, such as design, organization andmanagement (e.g. project- based organizing, knowledge and learning, strategy-as-practice), future studies, economics, innovation,anthropology, sociology, philosophy and history (see also Adam & Groves,2007; Akama, Pink, Sumartojo, & Shepard, 2018; Ehn, Nilsson, &Topgaard, 2014; Esposito, 2024;
Yelavich & Adams, 2014). We are open to empirical and theoretical works, as well as to project articles that outline how future making is practicedacross a range of contexts and disciplinary areas.
For a description of article types, see She Ji’s guide for authors, available at this link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/publish/guide-for-authors
About She Ji
She Ji is a peer-reviewed, trans-disciplinary design journal that provides aunique forum to create new knowledge at the intersection of different fields. The journal focuses on design, economics, and innovation intoday’s complex socio-technical environment, with a view to advancing design innovation in industries, businesses, non-profit organizations, and governments through economic and social value creation.
Open Access, No Fees
The journal is open access under a Creative Commons license. Authorsretain the copyright to their articles. Because Tongji University subsidizesthe publication, there are no article fees to authors or readers. Nevertheless, your experience in the Elsevier website can be confusing: the platform requests authors to agree to pay the publication fees, butTongji University will make the actual payment.
Preparing and Submitting Your Manuscript
Interested authors should prepare their contributions based on She Ji’s guide for authors,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/publish/guide-for-authors
including She Ji’s paper template and referencing principles.
For further guidance on preparing your manuscripts please consult theguide for authors. When preparing your contribution, please note that SheJi has no limits on the number of illustrations you may use. Guest editorswelcome figures, diagrams, and illustrations in full color or in black andwhite. Authors should submit their contribution via the She Ji’s submission platform.
https://www2.cloud.editorialmanager.com/sheji/
Proposed Timeline (Deadlines)
Open Call: 16 April 2024
Deadline for Manuscript Submissions 18 October 2024
Authors Notification: 14 February 2025
Deadline for Revised Manuscript Submissions: 16 May 2025
Authors Notification: 18 July 2025
Deadline for Camera-Ready Manuscript Submissions: 18 August 2025
Publication Date: 18 November 2025
Additional Information and Queries
Alice Comi, [log in to unmask]
Michael Shamiyeh, [log in to unmask]
Luigi Mosca, [log in to unmask]
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References
Adam, B., & Groves, C. (2007). Future Matters: Action, Knowledge,Ethics. Leiden: Brill. Ahmadpour, N., Pedell, S., Mayasari, A., & Beh, J. (2019). Co-creating and Assessing Future Wellbeing Technology Using Design Fiction. She Ji: TheJournal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 5(3), 209-230.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2019.08.003
Akama, Y., Pink, S., Sumartojo, S., & Shepard, J. (2018). Uncertainty andPossibility: New Approaches to Future Making in Design Anthropology.London: Routledge.
Auger, J. (2013). Speculative design: crafting the speculation. DigitalCreativity, 24(1), 11-35. doi:10.1080/14626268.2013.767276
Barendregt, L., & Vaage, N. S. (2021). Speculative Design as ThoughtExperiment. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation,7(3), 374-402.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2021.06.001
Clarke, L. (1999). Mission Improbable: Using Fantasy Documents toTame Disaster. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Comi, A., & Whyte, J. (2018). Future Making and Visual Artefacts: AnEthnographic Study of a Design Project. Organization Studies, 39(8),1055-1083.
doi:10.1177/0170840617717094
Denis, J.-L., Dompierre, G., Langley, A., & Rouleau, L. (2011). EscalatingIndecision: Between Reification and Strategic Ambiguity. OrganizationScience, 22(1), 225–244.
doi:10.1287/orsc.1090.0501
DiSalvo, C. (2012). Spectacles and Tropes: Speculative Design and Contemporary Food Cultures. The Fibreculture Journal, 109-122.
Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, andSocial Dreaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ehn, P., Nilsson, E. M., & Topgaard, R. (2014). Making futures: marginalnotes on innovation, design, and democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ericson, M. (2014). On the dynamics of fluidity and open-endedness ofstrategy process toward a strategy-as-practicing conceptualization. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 30(1), 1-15.
doi:dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2013.05.003
Esposito, E. (2024). Can we use the open future? Preparedness andinnovation in times of self- generated uncertainty. European Journal of Social Theory, 0(0), 13684310231224546.
doi:10.1177/13684310231224546
Ibach, M. K. (2023). Printing Utopia: The Domain of the 3D Printer in theMaking of Commons- Based Futures. Design and Culture, 15(3), 323-344.
doi:10.1080/17547075.2022.2136562
Luck, R. (2018). Participatory design in architectural practice: Changingpractices in future making in uncertain times. Design Studies, 59, 139-157.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2018.10.003
Malpass, M. (2013). Between Wit and Reason: Defining Associative,Speculative, and Critical Design in Practice. Design and Culture, 5(3),333-356.
doi:10.2752/175470813X13705953612200
Papanek, V. (1972). Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and SocialChange. Thames and Hudson, London.
Pettit, K. L., Balogun, J., & Bennett, M. (2023). Transforming Visions intoActions: Strategic change as a future-making process. OrganizationStudies, 01708406231171889.
doi:10.1177/01708406231171889
Sage, D., Dainty, A., & Brookes, N. (2014). A critical argument in favor oftheoretical pluralism: Project failure and the many and varied limitationsof project management. International Journal of Project Management,32(4), 544-555.
Shamiyeh, M. (2014). Driving desired futures: Turning design thinkinginto real innovation. Basel: Birkhäuser.
Shamiyeh, M. (2016). Designing from the Future. In W. Brenner & F.Uebernickel (Eds.), Design Thinking for Innovation: Research andPractice (pp. 193-219). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Thompson, N. A., & Byrne, O. (2021). Imagining Futures: Theorizing thePractical Knowledge of Future-making. Organization Studies, 43(2), 247-268.
doi:10.1177/01708406211053222
Tonkinwise, C. (2014). How We Intend to Future: Review of AnthonyDunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Design Philosophy Papers, 12(2), 169-187.
doi:10.2752/144871314X14159818597676
Wenzel, M. (2022). Taking the Future More Seriously: From CorporateForesight to “Future- Making”. Academy of Management Perspectives,36(2), 845-850.
doi:10.5465/amp.2020.0126
Whyte, J., Comi, A., & Mosca, L. (2022). Making futures that matter:Future making, online working and organizing remotely. Organization Theory, 3(1), 26317877211069138.
doi:10.1177/26317877211069138
Yelavich, S., & Adams, B. (2014). Design as Future-Making. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
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Anthropology Matters is a network of the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA), who administer this list. AM is used to alert subscribers to issues and events of anthropological interest in the UK anthropology community, such as conferences and seminars or funding opportunities. See https://theasa.org
The ASA is the professional association for social anthropology in the UK, representing the discipline and those who practice it. That probably means you! Becoming a member supports its work and members also benefit from its representation (and reduced conference fees). Join via https://theasa.org/membership/
- Join the list or view archived messages: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/Anthropology-Matters
- Email the list: [log in to unmask]
- To unsubscribe please click here:
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