ServDes

We are pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for ServDes 2027 is now open. 

ServDes 2027 will be hosted at Northumbria University‘s School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, under the theme: Designing in the Shadows – Places and Practices of Service Design in a Polarised World.

Shadows are not simply black and white. Shadows can benefit people and the environment. Shadows can offer protection from exposure. Shadows can suppress activities and ideas before they ever see the light of day. ServDes 2027 looks for the colours and shades of grey when we conceive, plan, develop and deliver services, when we invent new service possibilities and redesign existing services to improve access and to reduce inequality.

We advance academic discourse and practical insights at a time when service design faces profound challenges in a VUCAN era, marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity and novelty. Planetary urgencies, transformative technologies, industrial consolidation and eroding public trust are reshaping the contexts in which we design services, while the fundamental values that underpin service design – dignity, equity, inclusion, and social justice – are increasingly under pressure.

How may we draw on our traditional strengths of bringing communities together, addressing individual needs and fostering social cohesion to navigate and respond to growing polarisations?

The conference is organised around 8 tracks, spanning governance and algorithmic shadows to care, place, ecology and pedagogy in a polarised world.

Key dates: 

Find out more and submit your work: https://www.servdes2027.org