Design Meets Alterity. Case Studies, Project Experiences, Communication Criticism

The question of alterity has become fundamental to the understanding of contemporary societies and their possible development. The tools of global communication have gradually made multiple aspects of cultural diversity known. A problematic and contradictory consequence, but at the same time a potential asset, is the emergence of multicultural, multi-ethnic, intersectional societies and communities. Contemporary societies are thus increasingly confronted with that which is other than oneself, with that which poses questions that one is not accustomed to answering, with that which poses itself as a term of contradiction, questioning established certainties and beliefs. Otherness is a field yet to be explored, especially when one wants to move from theoretical reflection, which is inevitable and necessary, to transformative praxis. For example, reflection on alterity inevitably leads to the abandonment of all pretensions to centrism. The acceptance of a culture founded on the recognition of alterity and the reciprocal responsibility that this requires, leads to the abandonment of anthropocentrism and androcentrism, but also of Eurocentrism and logocentrism, i.e. the domination of a few 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, in different social and cultural contexts: from migratory flows to gender cultures, from social fragility to mental health, from cultural distances to the difficulties of social integration, etc. Design, in fact, possesses the appropriate tools to promote innovative and open visions of relations between people, peoples, languages.