Dear colleagues:
I am pleased to see the continuation of the discussion of where the 
study of products and their social effects and consequences fits into 
design research.Rather than a thread, I see this question as central 
to the nature of design research and believe it to be well worth 
further discussion. Should we end the discussion, will we simply go 
back to the way things were and pick up where we left off before we 
started. It would be great to see that some discussions on the list 
might actually change the field. In that sense, I would rather not 
call this discussion a thread, which sounds too relativist but 
instead lets call it a garment, though I don't know which one. 
Perhaps the pants to continue the metaphor of flying by the seats of 
our pants. But maybe the socks. In any case, I would like to 
introduce the image of a community of practitioners and researchers. 
As an example, I could cite the art commuity. It is made up of 
artists who make art, dealers and museums who display it, and 
customers who buy it or pay to see it. But it also consists of 
critics, theorists, and historians. In fact, the art community is 
unthinkable without critics who constantly evaluate the art that is 
produced, both for its contemporary meaning and value and for its 
place or lack thereof in history. The community also has theorists 
like Howard Becker, the sociologist who wrote Art Worlds or Pierre 
Bourdieu, who wrote Distinction (not exclusively about art) who take 
the meta view to study the community. My main point however is that 
making art does not exist without its critique and the critique 
provides feedback into the further making of art. This is true as 
well for architecture where the critique of buildings is very strong, 
sometimes strong enough to affect the future career of an architect, 
positively or negatively. Or think about making laws. We constantly 
critique laws that are about to be made and laws that have been made. 
In essence, most practices have ongoing  components of critique and 
evaluation which strongly influence those practices. I believe we 
have little of that in design. Yes, sales determine the success of a 
product in the marketplace, but not necessarily its value or meaning. 
So, my call for more research on the social effects of products 
relates to the need for an ongoing critical component of design 
practice just as we have comparable components for the practices of 
writing novels, making buildings, making films, producing art, 
writing music etc. All are introducing products to society and none 
without thick fields of discourse that judge and evaluate them. If we 
have something comparable in design and I am missing it, I welcome 
someone on the list pointing it out.
Best, Victor
-- 
Victor Margolin
Professor Emeritus of Design History
Department of Art History
University of Illinois at Chicago
935 W. Harrison St.
Chicago, IL 60607-7039
Tel. 1-312-583-0608
Fax 1-312-413-2460
website: www.uic.edu/~victor