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.
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