“Some of the major topics that occupy the discourse of design and innovation in recent years refer to challenges of inclusivity, diversity, sustainability, equality, and social justice. While there are numerous approaches towards these topics not only within the field of design and innovation but also in other fields (i.e., economy, education, sociology, anthropology), we’d like to suggest that one of the common denominators of all these discourses lies in the theoretical-philosophical-practical concept of multiplicity.

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Multiplicity has no one confining definition. The power of this concept lies in its ability to resist the ‘one’. Western thought has habitually privileged the one through notions of identity, essence and static existence (Przedpelski and Wilmer, 2020). The concept of multiplicity, on the other hand, undermines these assumptions and interrogates their derivative patterns. It challenges Western traditional preference for unity and logic, and resists the type of thinking that undervalues difference, diversity, becoming and becoming other. Multiplicity can be viewed as a ‘substantive noun’ that refrers to ‘an organization belonging to the many as such, which has no need for unity to form a system’ (Deleuze 1994).  It is related to variously formed matters, it allows the exploration of de-territorialization, of creating assemblages, strata, unexpected connections, and horizontal logic (in contrast to the usual vertical thinking).

We refer to multiplicity as a generative force and a pragmatic tool that may allow some paradigm shiftings. It has the ability to overcome binary logic and dichotomous divisions while combining practical real-life vectors such as design and education to advance pressing challenge trajectories of climate change and public good in social innovation (Council, 2021). Design, as Holmes (2018) observes, has a profound social impact: ‘the people who design the touch points of society determine who can participate and who’s left out’. This ‘cycle of exclusion’ is related to economic growth, to business success, and to the collective and individual well-being. The process of acknowledging multiplicity for design and design thinking, education and innovation, may help us not only to be better designers, innovators and educators, but also to fulfill Holme’s ethical inclusive imperative.

By adopting multiplicity as a way of thinking and designing, we can overcome binary categories; challenge static points of view that tend to focus on one dimension; explore complexities; and replace molar approaches with molecular series of actions, movements, flows, and gestures.

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The Design Factory Global Network is, in a way, already multiple. As a passion-based network, we acknowledge the challenges and benefits of exploring diverse perspectives, practices and pedagogies to increase the chance of working towards solving challenges beyond the remit of a single solution, practice or discipline (such as net zero planet and rights to equality as per sustainable development goals and tenets of the World Health Organisation).

We invite submissions exploring how design-driven thinking and practices can gain new meanings and approaches using the multiple as a way of thinking; how design can support the creation of a more inclusive and achievement-oriented learning environment; how inclusivity can be upgraded by interaction with the concept of multiplicity. We invite provocations as to how the concept of the multiple may allow novel or hybrid methods and paradigms; how it affects paedagogic approaches to design and innovation; and how it may be used to generate radical innovation. We welcome contributions showing how multiplicity and diversity can foster design and innovation that are more responsive to diverse perspectives and needs.”

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