About the Journal

DISCERN, the International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship is an independent cross-disciplinary and open access publication that seeks to encourage, foster and promote academic research and sharing of related work in the broad and multi-faceted area of design for social change and innovation. Aspects of this broad but clearly defined area include sustainable social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and the circular economy. The editorial board comprises a multinational team of academics/researchers with an active interest in the area and has the ultimate responsibility for the direction of this publication. The journal invites a variety of submissions including original research articles (conceptual, theoretical and empirical), review articles, research case studies, shorter reports, work in progress, book reviews, and discussions on articles and dialogues.

Current Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2023): Autumn Issue
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Spring 2024 – Special issue on decentring design: crafting shifts, in and through fashion

Open call for articles for the April 2024 Spring issue of ‘DISCERN, International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship’. The deadline for submissions is 31st March 2024.

DISCERN invites researchers, educators, practitioners and postgraduate students to submit original articles for a special issue in Spring 2024. This issue will be edited by Dr Francesco Mazzarella and Dr Seher Mirza of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London (UAL). We are calling for contributions about decentring design, not only from the field of fashion and textiles but also from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, migration studies, postcolonial studies, politics, etc.

We welcome critical thinking in redefining fashion systems, design activism, cultural sustainability, design for social change, social entrepreneurship and design for policy. We are also interested in methodological frameworks, practical implications, evaluation methods and discourse on the role of the designer in this expanding field, so we can be better equipped to tackle the sustainability challenges that face us, in and through fashion and textiles. 

The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2024. The submission guidelines and a template are available at https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J/about/submissions

For more information on this special issue, please contact the Guest Editors, Dr Francesco Mazzarella (f.mazzarella@fashion.arts.ac.uk) and/or Dr Seher Mirza (s.mirza@arts.ac.uk).

(Photographer JC Candanedo)