Dear Rosan,

Given the fact that I have not yet posted a note to three earlier
issues, I feel a bit guilty popping in to answer this query, but the
issues seem clear enough that I am going to try answering your
question.

There are several issues conflated in the query. One is among the
deepest questions in all research fields.

The situation that exists in design research suggests that there is
no collective agenda for our field. Our field is not a collectivity,
but a plurality of researchers engaged in multiple research streams.
Terry Love and I have been compiling a catalogue of design fields and
subfields, and design research disciplines and sub-disciplines. So
far, we have managed to accumulate 650 items. I do not see how there
can be a collective agenda for a field as broad and various as design
research.

There may be common concerns in such issues as the elements of the
design activity, or such issues as comparative research methodology,
philosophy of design, and philosophy of science in design research.
As John Warfield writes in his book pm the generic science of design,
some issues cover broad sectors of design and design research without
respect to the target field or discipline. Other issues are quite
specific. I do not see how a textile pattern designer can share a
collective research agenda with a design methods specialist
interested in studio practice for architecture or an operations
manager designing logistics for a factory production line.

Many forms of inquiry are relevant.

There are two answers to the question of how we decide. The first
answer involves a deep range of questions located in the philosophy
of science and the sociology of knowledge. I will not address these
here. I will simply state that these issues exist. They have been the
subject of inquiry by thinkers from Charles Saunders Peirce, Wilhelm
Dilthey, and Karl Popper, to Mary Catherine Bateson, Ian Hacking, and
Steve Fuller.

On a more pragmatic basis, how strongly we feel about an issue
determines how we decide whether it is relevant to our research
program. A few years ago, the rector of the Norwegian School of
Management wanted to know how much time a research project required
from first conception to final publication. One of our deans did a
study. While it was difficult to give a precise answer across all the
disciplines and forms of publishing, it turned out that the average
research project consumes one thousand hours of work from conception
to final publication.

Some projects take far more time than one thousand hours, others
less. The fact remains that normal academic salaries do not pay for
hours required for successful research.

We each of us do an enormous amount of research work on our own time.
We grab moments between classes and after school. We work at home
while patient spouses wonder what we are doing instead of the dishes
and impatient pets wonder what we are doing instead of a walk in the
forest. We jump up at four in the morning with an idea that we want
to write down while it is fresh and we are still writing when the
alarm rings and it is time to make the coffee.

While some of us have the good fortune to be paid for our research
time, none of us is paid for the full investment of time that serious
research demands.

Since we allocate the time that research requires, each of us decides
based on interest, passion, curiosity, and - sometimes - love for our
field or for those who own the problems we hope to solve.

If you have a problem and you are willing to invest the time required
to solve it, you get to decide on whether the problem is relevant to
you. If you are lucky enough to be fascinated by problems that
interest others, they will decide whether your research is relevant
to the field.

Best regards,

Ken



Rosan Chow asked:

what is our collective agenda for design research?
what is relevant? and how do we decide?


--

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management

Design Research Center
Denmark's Design School

Faculty of Art, Media, and Design
Staffordshire University (Visiting)

+46 (46) 53.245 Telephone

email: [log in to unmask]