UD26 — Belonging

Thematic Axis

Axis I — Belonging to Space

Investigate how design negotiates territory, situated identity, and culture (material and immaterial) at the seams of borders and rootedness in a world of mobility and asymmetry.

Context & problematisation

Place is more than a coordinate: it is living memory, symbolic dispute, and political ecology. Between small communities and networked cities, belonging cuts across community participation, local action, and international collaborations — but also displacement (migration), colonial legacies, and institutional limits. Design both documents and transforms these relations — at times reinforcing asymmetries, at times widening voices.

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

• Space-Place-Memory/History; heritage and materialities.
• Small communities (e.g., villages) and community action.
• Migration, borders, and identities in transit.
• International design and cross-border partnerships (ethics, reciprocity).
• Heritage, culture (material/immaterial), and contested representation.

Guiding questions

1. What maps of belonging emerge when communities map their own place?
2. How can design act upon borders (visible and invisible) without exoticising or fixing them?
3. Which participatory devices redistribute local voice and authority?
4. In international collaborations, what mechanisms ensure reciprocity and non-extraction?
5. Which material evidences (prototypes, artefacts, usages) signal territorial change?

Keywords

#PlaceBasedDesign #Communities #Participation #MaterialCulture #IntangibleHeritage #Migration #Borders #InternationalCollaborations #Heritage #SpatialJustice

Axis II — Belonging to Time

Explore heritages and possible futures as a field of contention where sustainability, regeneration, and the post-digital reshape what endures, what changes, and who owns technologies.

Context & problematisation

Time layers unresolved memories, forgotten pasts and colonial histories with promises of the future. Ecological transition coexists with technological acceleration and systemic mutation. Design must operate between continuity and rupture, questioning the ownership/control of digital and material infrastructures. To “belong to time” is to decide what to conserve, what to discard, what to repair, and what to re-imagine — with nature recognised as a stakeholder.

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

• Heritage, memory/history, and the politics of time.
• Regeneration and sustainability.
• Post-digital: between the archive and the living prototype.
• Temporal boundaries (urgency, waiting, latency) within design processes.
• Technology and power: who decides futures, and with which infrastructures?

Guiding questions

1. Which methods make unresolved pasts visible in a project — and with what effects in the present?
2. How do rhythms (seasons, use cycles, maintenance) inform design decisions?
3. Where is technological ownership located (data, algorithms, platforms), and who is included/excluded?
4. Which indicators evidence change over time (before/during/after)?
5. How do prototypes function as archives of the future (legacies, transferability)?

Keywords

#Futures #LivingHistory #Regeneration #Sustainability #Transformation #PostDigital #TechnologyAndPower #TemporalJustice #Memory #Infrastructures

Axis III — Belonging to Practice

Examine ways of making, learning, caring, and producing — from workshop practices and 21st-century craft to pedagogies and co-creation — as engines of situated change.

Context & problematisation

Practices are not neutral: they carry knowledge, gestures, affects, and economies. Across studios/workshops, classrooms, healthcare settings and living labs, design builds belonging through operational empathy, circular economy, transculture, and sustainability as practice. The challenge is to document how we do (methods, devices, mediators) and what changes when we do with.

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

• Workshop practice and 21st-century craft: materials, techniques, dignity of making.
• Pedagogies and studios: assessing learning and community impact.
• Co-creation and facilitation: devices, mediations, care, health-supporting practices.
• Circular economy and regeneration as transformative practices.
• Design and transculture: translation, mediation, ethics.

Guiding questions

1. Which practice devices (games, kits, scripts) redistribute participation and knowledge?
2. How is learning evidenced (cohort, organisation, community)?
3. Which material indicators (use cycles, repair, waste avoided) substantiate change?
4. How is empathy operationalised (listening, feedback loops, consent) beyond rhetoric?
5. Which tensions/failures occurred, and what practice adjustments did they generate?

Keywords

#WorkshopPractice #Craft21 #DesignPedagogies #CoCreation #OperationalEmpathy #CircularEconomy #Transculture #SustainabilityInAction #Regeneration #DesignMethods

Open Axis — Belonging Otherwise

Not every contribution sits neatly within the three axes. If your work explores belonging from a different angle — theoretical, methodological, critical, experimental, cross- or transdisciplinary — you still belong.

Submissions

Abstract submissions are now under review and the authors will receive the notification of acceptance on the 16th of February. If the abstract is accepted, authors will then be invited to submit a full-paper for a second round of review. Both the Book of Abstracts and the Full Papers Proceedings will be published, each with its own ISBN and DOI.

CMT Platform

Guidelines

Language: all submissions should be in clear, grammatically correct English (American or British, but consistent); all presentations are also expected to be in English.

Templates: Full paper submissions will be expected to be between 2500~4000 words (including title, abstract, keywords, main text, footnotes, captions and references). A Word template will soon be provided for the full-paper submission.

Originality & Ethics: submissions for abstracts and full-papers must be original; declare consent/anonymisation when involving people or data.

Attendance expectation: At least one of the authors of each work must register, participate, and present their work in-person at the conference. If not presented in-person, the full-paper will not be included in the book of proceedings.

How to Submit

A CMT account is required to submit a paper. Please head over to the links below for help on how to create an account, or on how to submit a paper. Any queries or doubts, please contact us.

How to set up a CMT account

How to submit a paper in CMT

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Author Registration	Early Bird	Standard	Late Bird
Author	100€	150€	200€
Author (ODA)	50€	75€	100€
Author (ID+ member)	free	50€	100€

Audience Registration	Early Bird	Standard	Late Bird
Audience	25€	30€	50€
Audience (ODA)	20€	25€	30€
Audience (ID+ member)	free	25€	30€

Belonging

to place, time, and practice

The Conference 2 and 3 July 2026

UD26 invites Design PhD researchers to explore Belonging across 3 axis: space, time and practice. We seek to create a meeting place where young researchers share contributions that advance how design understands, shapes and supports the feeling of Belonging.

Thematic Axis

Axis I — Belonging to Space

Investigate how design negotiates territory, situated identity, and culture (material and immaterial) at the seams of borders and rootedness in a world of mobility and asymmetry.

Context & problematisation

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

Guiding questions

Keywords

#PlaceBasedDesign #Communities #Participation #MaterialCulture #IntangibleHeritage #Migration #Borders #InternationalCollaborations #Heritage #SpatialJustice

Read more

Axis II — Belonging to Time

Explore heritages and possible futures as a field of contention where sustainability, regeneration, and the post-digital reshape what endures, what changes, and who owns technologies.

Context & problematisation

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

Guiding questions

Keywords

#Futures #LivingHistory #Regeneration #Sustainability #Transformation #PostDigital #TechnologyAndPower #TemporalJustice #Memory #Infrastructures

Read more

Axis III — Belonging to Practice

Examine ways of making, learning, caring, and producing — from workshop practices and 21st-century craft to pedagogies and co-creation — as engines of situated change.

Context & problematisation

Scope & fit (topics include, but are not limited to)

Guiding questions

Keywords

#WorkshopPractice #Craft21 #DesignPedagogies #CoCreation #OperationalEmpathy #CircularEconomy #Transculture #SustainabilityInAction #Regeneration #DesignMethods

Read more

Open Axis — Belonging Otherwise

Not every contribution sits neatly within the three axes. If your work explores belonging from a different angle — theoretical, methodological, critical, experimental, cross- or transdisciplinary — you still belong.

Important Dates

28 November 2025 Call for abstracts

18 January 2026 Abstract submission deadline

1 February 2026 Abstract submission deadline: Extended

16 February 2026 Abstract approval notification

15 April 2026 Full-paper submission deadline

4 May 2026 Full-paper approval notification

18 May 2026 Fully revised paper submission

2 and 3 July 2026 Conference dates

Submissions

Guidelines

Language: all submissions should be in clear, grammatically correct English (American or British, but consistent); all presentations are also expected to be in English.

Templates: Full paper submissions will be expected to be between 2500~4000 words (including title, abstract, keywords, main text, footnotes, captions and references). A Word template will soon be provided for the full-paper submission.

Originality & Ethics: submissions for abstracts and full-papers must be original; declare consent/anonymisation when involving people or data.

Attendance expectation: At least one of the authors of each work must register, participate, and present their work in-person at the conference. If not presented in-person, the full-paper will not be included in the book of proceedings.

How to Submit

A CMT account is required to submit a paper. Please head over to the links below for help on how to create an account, or on how to submit a paper. Any queries or doubts, please contact us.

How to set up a CMT account

How to submit a paper in CMT

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Registration

Early Bird

Standard

Late Bird

Author

100€

150€

200€

Author (ODA)

50€

75€

100€

Author (ID+ member)

free

50€

100€

Opens on 4 May 2026, after full paper approval notification.

Early Bird

Standard

Late Bird

Audience

25€

30€

50€

Audience (ODA)

20€

25€

30€

Audience (ID+ member)

The Conference
2 and 3 July 2026

28 November 2025
Call for abstracts

18 January 2026
Abstract submission deadline

1 February 2026
Abstract submission deadline: Extended

16 February 2026
Abstract approval notification

15 April 2026
Full-paper submission deadline

4 May 2026
Full-paper approval notification

18 May 2026
Fully revised paper submission

2 and 3 July 2026
Conference dates

University of Aveiro
Departamento de Comunicação e Arte (DeCA)
Campus Universitário de Santiago,
3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal