ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to Part 2 of this book. The part aims to guide design researchers in framing researchable questions in design. It offers guidance on the foundational positioning and perspectivising of the research at the outset of a project and outlines several key theoretical foundations, conceptual constructs and ways of describing positions from which to approach design research. The part looks to challenge assumptions in social design research in the Global South. It examines the implications when we design with groups who hold other worldviews, such as Indigenous communities. The part describes an emancipatory approach to design research where knowledge production is determined and directed by people most impacted by the research who have one or more marginalised or oppressed identities. It examines how design research processes might actually perpetuate exclusion in design processes. The part also examines fashion as a system that comprises various degrees of interaction across and between individuals, groups and societal levels.
