Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains in Designing and Researching for Transformation

Abstract

The theme track ‘Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains in Designing and Researching for Transformation’ at DRS2026 includes 12 papers that explore the growing pains, the frictions, contradictions, and (unresolved) dilemmas that characterise designing for transitions and transformations including tensions around epistemic challenges, transdisciplinarity, and participation, and the responses designers/design researchers are exploring to meet them. This editorial describes key growing pains addressed in the papers, while highlighting the different response to dilemmas in transition work. Through reflecting on the contributions to the track, several opportunities for future work arise as the field matures.