Design. Design History, Research Methodology and Institutions

Research in design history, even though originating from art history, has gained its own well-established position, with both regular and one-off conferences as well as specialized periodicals, with „Journal of Design History“ leading the way. A noticeable shift of focus in research perspectives has been taking place for some time, from the issues of production to social and historical questions, through consumption and finally, in the most recent years, seeing the history of design within the framework of mediating discourses, regarding design not just in terms of objects but as a group of practices and narratives strongly related to cultural history (Lees-Maffei, 2009). The increased focus on design history has also been stimulated by social interest in its products, noticeable in the art market, collecting and exhibitions, as well as, predominantly on a regional level, bringing back to light forgotten designers, objects and producers. This situation mainly concerns design produced after 1945 and animates its studies, fostering diversification of methodological perspectives, research objectives and expected results, as well as interdisciplinarity. These phenomena are clearly discernible in the design history of East-Central Europe, where - with intensity differing regionally - research communities, institutions and collections, the art market and mechanisms of popularization are being created or developed. An important turning point for this macro-region, was the transformation period after 1989, which closed the era of state-regulated design, with all its infrastructure, and, soon afterwards, resulted in the birth of reflection on its history, the need to systematize and secure projects and, more recently, re-issue some of them. The planned volume will not be limited to the history of East-Central European design, but our ambition is to grasp the dynamics of reflection on the function of design in this particular region. At the same time, we are also interested in perspectives on western-European and global tendencies in the field. Bearing that in mind, we encourage submissions concerning the following questions:

- transition in designing and producing from applied arts to design
- design as a platform for forming a new society and human being
- design and aspirations of power
- design in societies of under-supply
- advising and advertising in the field of design
- strategies of collecting design
- models of exhibiting design
- history of design in academic education

We will accept abstracts (2,000-3,000 characters) accompanied by a short academic bio (max 500 characters) until 15th November 2020. We will accept proposals in English, German and Polish. These should be sent to aq.redakcjaamu.edu.pl. The authors of accepted proposals will be asked to send the full texts by 15th February 2021. Texts should be no longer than 50,000 characters and be formatted according to the guidelines available on our website (For Authors). We would also like to remind scholars interested in publishing in our journal that in each issue we also accept a number of papers in the field of art history, unrelated to its main topic.