Design History and Culture: Methods and Approaches

This student-friendly text provides a comprehensive exploration of the methods and approaches employed within design scholarship, drawing upon influences from history, art history, anthropology and interdisciplinary studies such as science and technology studies and material culture studies. Drawing connections between these methods and the evolving landscape of design, the book expands design culture beyond traditional outcomes to encompass areas like design for social innovation, digital design, critical design, design anthropology and craftivism. Additionally, the book introduces novel theoretical frameworks to facilitate discussions on contemporary designers’ work, including new materialism, object-oriented ontology and decolonization. This comprehensive overview of methods and approaches will enable students to select the most appropriate methodological tools for their own research. It is an ideal guide for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in design, design culture, design history, design studies and visual culture.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; METHODS; Chapter 1. Close Readings I: Structuralism; Chapter 2. Close Readings II: Post-structuralism; Chapter 3. The Life cycle of Objects: Tracking Design; Chapter 4. The Comparative Method: DIfferences and Similarities; Chapter 5. Case Study Research: The Specific and the General; Chapter 6. Designer's Monographs: Fluid authorship; Chapter 7. Oral History: Memories of the Past and the Present; Chapter 8. Ethnography: Groups and Individuals; Chapter 9. Discourse Analysis: Constructing Reality; APPROACHES; Chapter 10. Industry: Economic and Legal Frameworks; Chapter 11. Geopolitics: National Interactions; Chapter 12. Society and Culture: Manners, Morals and Customs; Chapter 13. Gender Studies: Questioning Heteronormativity; Chapter 14. Style: Period, Group and Individual; Chapter 15. The Typological Approach: Categories and Belonging; Chapter 16. Materials and Techniques: Transforming Nature.

About the Author :
Javier Gimeno-Martínez is an associate professor of Design Cultures at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research interest encompasses the crossovers between design scholarship and other disciplines within the humanities and the social sciences. He is the author of the book Design and National Identity (2016).

Review :
"Fantastic as a read. Masterfully useful for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. A revealing perspective on design methodologies and approaches (their genealogies and today´s uses). A book of this caliber is destined to be the foremost academic reference for any thesis in design." - Verónica Devalle, Universidad de Buenos Aires/ Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina "With real verve and subtle nuance, Gimeno Martinez crafts a tour de force to analyse and explain the current state of design culture studies. Alive on every page, a book of method becomes a brilliant micro-mosaic of design cultures, influences, interactions, processes, and positions. Sensitive and respectful to the many and varied voices that have formed design history and culture, Gimeno Martinez argues that the distance between multimodal design and art history is not as far as others have maintained." - Peter McNeil, University of Technology Sydney “An unparalleled contribution to design scholarship, Design History and Culture: Methods and Approaches stands out as an intellectual cornerstone. Synthesizing design history and studies into culture and philosophy, this book's interdisciplinary approach opens up new methodological vistas for understanding design processes and provides profound insights that extend beyond cultural and geographical boundaries.” - Wendy S Wong, York University, Canada “With its gathering and examination of a wide range of research methods and approaches that address the shifting concerns of design history in the 21st century, Design History and Culture is set to be an invaluable resource for all those interested in studying design past and present.” - Catharine Rossi, University for the Creative Arts, UK “The result is a text that all of us who teach and research the subject will undoubtedly benefit from, a useful intellectual prop that will help us position ourselves within what often appears to be the chaotic, and sometimes seemingly arbitrary, theoretical and conceptual framework that supports our work.” - Penny Sparke, Kingston University, UK