Dear Rob,
This is in reply to your message of 30 May 2000.
(1) The debate IS and has always been very much about designing and its
nature. It is about whether the PhD, a research degree, could properly
be awarded for designing. The argument in favour is that designing, at
least under certain conditions, is a kind of research. The argument
against is that designing, in and of itself, is never a kind of
research. The debate is thus not divorced from what designing is, as
you assert. It is NOT a debate about what to call a (third level)
degree awarded to designers, as you asset. It is a debate about what
that degree should or could be.
(2) I think you are quite mistaken in likening the debate to the story
of the Moneychangers in the Temple. Although this debate is about only
one of a number of important and related issues in the education and
training of designers and researchers, the focus is very much upon
their education and training. How you can think it is not after
reading the contributions, from both sides, puzzles me.
(3) Silicon Vale is not the only place in the world that is changing
quickly, nor is it the only place where important designing is being
done. In many of these other places people, including senior
educators, are actively involved in trying to develop modern and
effective ways to educate and train designers and researcher. It
involves discussion and debate, like this one. Discussion and debate
that is very much about the future, not the past: the education and
training of designers and researchers is always about the future.
These people will be responsible for creating a lot of that future.
(4) The debate about the use of the PhD degree for designing is not
several hundred years old, as you assert. It is only a few years old.
Nor is it inconclusive. It has not yet been resolved, that's true.
More discussion and debate is needed. However, that does not allow
you to assert that it is inconclusive.
(5) Is it not disheartening, even depressing, to hear a senior designer
so grossly miss-present and/or misunderstand the true nature, value, and
importance of this debate? Without good designers and researchers,
properly educated and trained, and recognised by the award of
appropriate degrees, companies like those in Silicon Vale as elsewhere
in the world could never be set up and maintained.
Best regards,
Tim Smithers
CEIT & Faculty of Industrial Engineering, University of Navarra
Donostia / San Sebastián
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