The Question of Agency in the Understanding of Design

摘要

Something has happened recently on the way to design understanding. When 'design studies' emerged in its contemporary form in the late 1970s and 1980s it was axiomatic that at least one of its pillars, and by no means the least, was history. This was taken for granted, for example, in the founding principles of the journal Design Issues, and in this the journal followed not only the existing academic strengths in design history as then was (a history that at best, pedagogically, was still linked to practice, as evident in some of the early publications of the Design History Society), but also earlier, seemingly more technical, studies of design methods.