Strategies began as a shared effort to extend the reach of the Journal of Design Strategies and quickly evolved into something more: a platform for collaboration across art, design, and the social and human sciences. Hosted by the School of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design, it now operates as a nexus for those exploring how design intersects with social, political, and economic structures. With a commitment to open access and international exchange, Strategies serves as a hub for emergent ideas and practices.
About
Strategies is a platform for strategic practice for educators, scholars, artists, and designers. A project of Parsons’ School of Design Strategies, it serves as a counterpart to the Journal of Design Strategies.
We’re interested in how design engages systemic and social challenges. Not as straightforward problem-solving, but as a way of asking deeper questions. Strategy, as we understand it here, isn’t only about devising plans to reach predetermined goals; it’s about examining the forces that shape our lives and exploring how they might be reconfigured. It includes critical essays, conversations, case studies, and speculative reflections that grapple with complexity across domains such as technology, governance, culture, and collective practice. Inspired in part by what adrienne maree brown calls “emergent strategy,” where people “grow a compelling future together through relatively simple interactions,” the work we publish treats design as a mode of inquiry: a space where practitioners and thinkers probe assumptions, experiment with ideas, and share insights from ongoing exploration.
Strategies brings together three types of contributions. The Journal of Design Strategies publishes peer-reviewed scholarship examining how design intersects with social, political, and economic structures. Our Discourse section features essays, reviews, videos, interviews, exhibitions, and design projects from contributors beyond the university, alongside members of the School of Design Strategies faculty and colleagues across The New School. Explorations highlights experimental student work and curricular innovations (from faculty or students at an academic institution) that expand the scope of design and design research.
Together, these form a living archive of how people are using design to question assumptions, challenge business as usual, and build capacity for the kinds of worlds we want to inhabit. The platform makes this work accessible to global audiences: scholars and practitioners, prospective students seeking to understand what strategic design means, and anyone interested in how creative practice can open new possibilities for collective action.
If you want to publish with Strategies, please send us a pitch that follows the guidelines below. Pitches should be sent to strategies@newschool.edu and Andrew Shea (andrewshea@newschool.edu). Include “pitch” in the subject heading.
Our editorial team reviews all pitches. If your pitch is accepted, you’ll be asked to produce a final version of your submission, which we will review before accepting and publishing. All contributions should align with the ethos of this platform and fit within one of the sections. Be mindful that Strategies cannot pay authors.
For submissions to the peer-reviewed Journal of Design Strategies, contact Koray Caliskan (caliskak@newschool.edu).
How to Submit
Pitching to Strategies
Strategies serves an informed, non-specialist audience interested in strategic approaches to art, design, and the social sciences. Explorations should avoid academic jargon. Technical terms should be explained. Cite sources, but hyperlinked sources work fine. You don’t need footnotes. If you’re citing books, link to the publisher’s website rather than Amazon. Keep a wide audience in mind. Writing composed by AI does not align with the goals of Strategies. We accept a range of formats for our Discourse section, including but not limited to:
- An essay (1,200–1,800 words). An in-depth examination of a topic or text, preferably with a challenging approach. Examples might be an op-ed, a talk you gave at a conference, a portion of a work in progress, or a research paper adapted for a general audience.
- A review (750–1,800 words). Timely critical discussion of a book, movie, television show, website, exhibition—anything discussed through the lens a Strategies reader would care about and that lies within your field of expertise.
- An interview (1,200–1,800 words) with a practitioner, thinker, collaborator, or collective.
- A book excerpt (1,200–1,800 words). Selections from new releases or timely reissues. An excerpt may be accompanied by an author interview.
- A news report (800–1,000 words). Be prepared to turn revisions quickly.
- A letter (250–1,000 words). Commentaries on breaking events are especially welcome.
- A short video or sound piece. We may also host these media on YouTube and Soundcloud, depending on the type of media.
- A visual essay.
We also consider formats not detailed here.
Strategies encourage the use of images, but the author must own or obtain the rights to any accompanying media outside instances of fair use.
What Makes a Good Contribution
Ideal contributions link the strategy with public conversation. The strongest:
- Challenge and engage audiences that do not necessarily agree with the writer’s point of view.
- Give specific and original insight into complicated problems or thorny ideas.
- Anticipate readers’ questions and potential confusion regarding issues of significance, tradition, propositions, and long-standing structural concerns. One important role of an Exploration is to clarify and explain the stakes of world histories, changes, and local processes.
- Start conversations and have an impact on the fields of art, design, and the social and human sciences.
- Delight readers with great writing and originality, and open a window to a world they might not otherwise see.
- Have a word count typically from 800 to 1,200 words, although we sometimes publish essays that are shorter or longer.
Pitching and Submission Guidelines
Submit a pitch to the editors. Your pitch should include:
- A first sentence that sums up the article.
- An explanation of the context and the significance of the story.
- Proposed length and format.
- A brief summary of your credentials. These might include scholarly expertise, personal perspective, or professional experience. In other words, why are you the best person to write this exploration? After receiving the editors’ responses and comments, develop and submit your exploration, referencing the guidelines below.
- Title: Be sure to include a title for your submission.
- Author and biographical note: List full names of all authors with email, title/position, and affiliation (if applicable).
- Keywords: List 5-7 keywords. This will make your work searchable.
- Text: Written work should be submitted as an editable Word document. The review process will track changes in Word.
- Images: Photos, diagrams, drawings, and other images should be submitted with high resolution (at least 300 dpi) along with a Word document listing corresponding captions. Authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions, and these should be sent with your submission (email correspondence that clearly states permission, in writing, to publish the work in Strategies will suffice).
- Citations and notes: Avoid the use of footnotes. Use in-text citations and include a reference list at the end of the document. You might also choose to include hyperlinks. When doing so, please link to the publisher, not to Amazon.
- Acknowledgements: If applicable, include very brief acknowledgments at the end of the document.
Masthead
Barbara Adams
Otto von Busch
Andrew Shea
Editorial Board
Koray Caliskan
Editor, Journal of Design Strategies
Jeongki Lim
Dean, School of Design Strategies
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