Roundtable:

Europe led the way when the first design historiography debates appeared in their day. Those new studies focussed more on researching local histories than on constructing supposedly hegemonic heroic narratives. Yet European micro-history should be related to world macro-history. In an apparently united Europe it is still necessary to cross over a multitude of borders, whether geographical, cultural, political or economic. In exploring intra-European histories we should also add extra-European ones. We are here dealing with the question of recomposing the European design map beyond the known centre, and of studying exchanges in consonance with the methodology proposed by global history. In Europe a diversity of institutions and research groups related to design history have recently appeared. In Spain, and specifically in Barcelona, there are the GRACMON research group of the University of Barcelona, and the History of Design Foundation (Fundación Historia del Diseño).