Dear Francois-Xavier,
Please allow me to disagree gently on my review of Thomas Neville
Bonner's biography of Abraham Flexner in the August issue of Design
Research News. Flexner's famous report addressed the state of medical
education in the early 1900s. He did not argue that there were no
seminal texts or acknowledged researchers. He argued that there were,
and that too few medical schools in North America made proper use of
available research or research-based teaching.
The review compared the education of medical doctors in Flexner's day
with doctoral education in design today. The comparison involved the
state of doctoral programs, not the state of the literature.
Our field is young as a distinct research field. Doctoral education
is particularly young. Nevertheless, the literature of design
research goes back many decades. There are many seminal texts and
acknowledged researchers. Many of these texts have been noted here in
threads on different topics, along with the influential and widely
recognized scholars who wrote them.
Many important books in design research have been cited in threads on
this list. The past year alone has seen citations to Henry Petroski,
Dick Buchanan, Pirkko Anttila, Victor Margolin, John Warfield, Chris
Nippert-Eng, Klaus Krippendorff, Herbert Simon, Rachel Cooper, Donald
Norman, Edward Tufte, Margaret Bruce, Per Mollerup, Louis
Bucciarelli, Birgit Jevnaker, John Chris Jones, Vladimir Hubka, Ernst
Eder, John Heskett. Pelle Ehn, Nigel Cross, Erik Stolterman, Richard
Coyne, Buckminster Fuller, Harold Nelson Š every time I think the
list is long enough, I think of another name that seems indispensable.
I share your enthusiasm for the work of our best recent doctoral
graduates. I can mention several more dissertations of outstanding
quality. This includes projects by Lily Diaz, Grete Refsum, Ida
Engholm, Antti Ainamo, and Henryk Gerdenryd.
Judicious praise requires perspective. It is a mistake to praise the
work of excellent new scholars by claiming that their work lays the
foundations of a missing literature.
There is already an extensive literature. That is why good doctoral
research begins with a literature review. Our best new doctors anchor
their work in a growing literature that began long ago. The
literature preceded and gave birth to the new field as a distinct
context of inquiry and research.
Best regards,
Ken
--
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management
Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University
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