TY - BOOK AU - Hémon,Stéphanie AU - Gentès,Annie AU - Bessières,Dominique TI - When design meets territory: Exploratory practices and emerging professions PY - 2023///. N1 - 79 N2 - This article presents an exploratory qualitative survey carried out among fifteen designers who claim to work “with/on/for” territories (in their words, on their website, in their job title) in connection with public commissions (public procurements, design project tenders, management requests for integrated designers). Based on the methodology of grounded theory, this qualitative survey reveals, behind the apparent self-evidence of the phrase “territory design,” a variety of meanings. Our analysis of these multiple meanings is not only a testament to the multidisciplinary nature of “territory design,” but also the “meta-characteristics” related to transversal knowledge and the use of mediums of expression, confirming the importance of participation and visual mediation. The latter allow design teams to gain perspective and reconcile the various dimensions of the territory. This analysis also enabled us to highlight how this “vagueness” of meaning undermines their positions as professionals. To remedy this, designers are implementing professionalization strategies, on the one hand by forming associations and, on the other, by establishing values that determine the characteristics of their design projects. Finally, the analysis of this emerging field shows how design seems to occupy a transition zone that is both vertical and horizontal, local and global, between several ecosystems UR - https://shs.cairn.info/journal-sciences-du-design-2023-1-page-82?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080 ER -