Design Meets Alterity

The QUESTION OF ALTERITY has become fundamental to understanding contemporary societies, which are increasingly multicultural, multiethnic and intersectional. That which is OTHER poses questions that one is not used to answering, poses itself as a term of contradiction, questioning established certainties and beliefs.
Alterity is a field yet to be explored, especially when one wants to move from theoretical reflection, inevitable and necessary, to transformative praxis.
Reflection on alterity leads to the ABANDONMENT OF ALL FORMS OF CENTRALISM. Acceptance of a culture based on the recognition of alterity and mutual responsibility requires overcoming anthropocentrism and androcentrism, but also Eurocentrism and logocentrism, that is, the domination of some forms of communication and signification over all others. Today, it is legitimate to think that the design dimension can also undertake research paths that highlight THE NEED TO RECOGNISE THE OTHER: from migratory flows to gender cultures, from social fragility to mental health, from cultural distances to the difficulties of social integration, etc. This is the direction in which the essays in this volume are heading. Design culture has the right tools to promote innovative and open visions of relations between people, peoples, and languages.

Salvatore Zingale is Associate Professor at the Department of Design of the Politecnico di Milano and teaches Design Semiotics at the School of Design. He is particularly interested in the cognitive and inventive processes of design activity and dialogicity in cultural interactions. On the relationship between design and alterity, he has edited Design e alterità. Conoscere l'Altro, pensare il Possibile (FrancoAngeli, 2022) and the volume Relazioni dialogiche. Un'indagine sulla comunicazione e la progettualità (FrancoAngeli, 2023).