ABSTRACT Design, as discipline and practice, is referred to as the interpretation of contemporary culture, both in its tangible and intangible expressions. The design practice acts as an agent that can detect cultural evolutions, identify their drivers and patterns of change, and then design a possible new cultural environment which can embed the newly-found meanings and drive the innovation of products and services. Through a literature review, the paper introduces the notions of “contemporary cultures” and “culture intensive goods”, investigating the paradigmatic shift from technology- and market-driven innovation to design- and culture-driven innovation. Innovation can be defined as the attitude of a product or service to embody the symbolic and cultural contents of the system of reference, to be “authentic” (Gilmore & Pine, 2007) and evocative. Striving for authenticity, the design research aims to develop a storytelling of cultural meanings and to stimulate new sense-making processes within a given socio-cultural context. Within this theoretical framework, the paper will focus on fashion, one of the most advanced culture intensive industries, as a peculiar case which has built methodologies and tools to draw innovation trajectories, starting from the reading of socio-cultural and economical contexts. In particular, the paper will discuss how cultural contents are embedded into fashion artifacts, how cultural exchange is becoming part of the relationship between contemporary users and producers and how fashion has become an eminent provider of cultural diversity and authenticity in contemporary markets. Keywords: culture intensive industries, innovation, authenticity, fashion, museum, retail space. CULTURE INTENSIVE GOODS 1 The scientific debate about the nature of innovation has become increasingly important at a time of overall reorganization of the economic and political balances and of growing awareness of the impact of change processes on social, cultural and environmental contexts (Rosenberg, 1984). The positivist dream - which saw in science-driven technological progress the engine of innovation able to generate wellness - is gradually being overtaken by the idea that technological innovation is, in fact, a social construction (Penati, 1999; Pinch, 2005; Bucchi, 2010). The hypothesis of the abstraction of science from society must also be exceeded, assuming positions of greater responsibility with respect to the possible effects of science and technology operations. While the DESIGN RESEARCH AND SENSE-MAKING IN CULTURE INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES: DRIVING INNOVATION THROUGH A DESIGN READING OF CULTURAL EVOLUTIONS Matteo Augello Paola Bertola Chiara Colombi Valeria M. Iannilli Federica Vacca Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Politecnico di Milano (Italy) matteo.augello@hotmail.it paola.bertola@polimi.it chiara.colombi@polimi.it valeria.iannilli@polimi.it federica.vacca@polimi.it