Dealing with diversity: Issues in design research and design research methods

Abstract

Design research is a timely topic, given the current movements in art and design institu- tions throughout the world towards articula- tion, conceptualization, and (academic) research, where labels such as practice-based research abound. It is also a challenging topic with many open issues concerning conceptual foundations and methodological practices. As the articles in this special issue will show, design research is marked by significant diver- sity in the sense that it engages researchers from many different disciplines: Philosophy, systems theory, social science, information science, architecture, and design are among the academic disciplines represented here, with all the diversity in epistemological and meth- odological traditions that they entail.