Rob,

This is all true. I'm not criticizing the thread. I'm raising a question.

This list often sees debates the acceptability of posting carefully written 
comments on research issues. A look into the archives will show several 
dozen occasions in which scholarly or scientific posts have been attacked 
simply because they are scientific or scholarly – someone feels intimidated, 
another worries about power relations, a third seems to suggest that a 
scholarly debate is somehow less democratic than a post that simply 
describes feelings.

Now I’m not criticizing the threads of the last few days. I’m asking a 
question – and I think it’s a fair question.

Discussing design practice is relevant to design research. Brainstorming a 
specific product problem may not be. Not, at least, unless we link the 
discussion to research in design.

Otherwise, I’d like to know what makes a product development brainstorm on 
PhD-Design different from a product development brainstorm on any other 
list. Or a product development brainstorm back at the shop.

IMHO, this is your strong field. Everyone values and respects your 
knowledge. At the same time, this is also YOUR comfort zone as a professor 
of industrial design. Since you have also been a frequent critic of 
scholarly debate, I’d be tempted to quote you: “Confronting and accepting 
change and being flexible is part of design today even on the level of 
discussion topics. If the world stayed the same there would be no need for 
design.” But then, I’d want to add a word to your note: “If the world stayed 
the same there would be no need for design research.”

Please take this with a wink and a smile. I’m not complaining about the 
thread, but I certainly AM asking for stronger links to research issues.

I’ve had a few off-list notes on this. It’s not my place to post private 
notes, but I’d sure like to hear what others think. Is anyone else willing 
to step up to the plate and swing at this ball?

Cindy

Headed back home from Berlin – with a happy detour through London thanks to 
a sudden client meeting





On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 13:34:52 -0400, Rob Curedale <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

>Cindy,
>
>I understand the list is called PhD Design. Someone who does not want to
>discuss design practice probably should not be teaching, studying design
>or researching it. Confronting and accepting change and being flexible
>is part of design today even on the level of discussion topics. If the
>world stayed the same there would be no need for design.
>
>Rob Curedale
>

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