Hi Richard,
As a contributor to the JoDH, I would like to take up your challenge.
I fear that your critique is based solely upon the short summary
distributed as a way of publicising the special issue. As with all
research, you really need to read the full papers in order understand
the arguments being proposed - to move the debate beyond generalisations
and received wisdom.
My own contribution dealt with the success of the Mirror dinghy, a
plywood sailing boat designed by Barry Bucknell, and promoted by the
Daily Mirror newspaper during the 1960s.
This self-build boat, supplied in the form of a kit, was purchased by
large numbers of working men (70,000 boats have been built since its
launch in 1963) and was built during their newly acquired leisure time -
often in their newly acquired garages. It is clear that without the
confidence and expertise gained from carrying out home improvements, and
that without the development of mass market DIY materials and products,
and that without the involvement of the Daily Mirror (at the time a
newspaper with a strong commitment to socialism and to social change),
most people would not have had taken on this type of project.
As a consequence of DIY, sailing, a previously elite pastime became
available to a new constituency of working class people - thus helping
to democratise the sport.
And what's more I can prove it... but you will either have to take my
word for it, or read the research.
Best wishes
Andrew Jackson
Principal Lecturer in Design
University College for the Creative Arts
-----Original Message-----
From: Design History Society [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Richard Coopey
Sent: 13 May 2006 21:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Journal of Design History - Do It Yourself: Democracy and
Design
Michelle
This sounds about as wrong as it is possible to be. DIY as a leveller of
class - I doubt it very much. The working class have traditionally been
the
repository of DIY, and its still the middle class who pay for work to be
done. Worse than this, how can you "democratise" something that existed
in
the realm of small-scale independent entrepreneurs - i.e. tradesmen
carpenters, decorators, plumbers, builders etc. How can this process be
anything new - is it credible that Barry Bucknall was appealing to a
middle
class in advocating the through lounge and a hardboard modernism in the
1950s. How can the "democracy" of a sector rest on the foundation of an
overwhelming trend of monopolisation of hardware sales by the chains
like
Homebase B&Q etc.. .I could go on.
Dr Richard Coopey
University of wales, Aberystwyth
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michelle Rawling <[log in to unmask]"
<[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 2:17 PM
Subject: Journal of Design History - Do It Yourself: Democracy and
Design
Available now is the Journal of Design History's special issue, entitled
Do
It Yourself: Democracy and Design.
DIY has acted as a leveler of class - overcoming the social stigma of
manual
labor, and permitting the working classes to engage in leisure
activities
from which they were previously excluded.
This issue attempts to broaden existing work in the area by taking this
aspect of design democracy as its unifying theme, and expanding the
notion
of DIY from the narrow perspective in which it is often held.
Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design is edited by Paul Atkinson, a
designer
and design historian in the School of Art & Design at the University of
Huddersfield. He has published widely on design education and design
history, and is the curator at an exhibition also titled 'Do It
Yourself:
Democracy and Design.'
For more information on the exhibition and the special issue, please
visit
http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/.
An order form for Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design is also available
on
the Web site.
|