Hi Rosan,
Your post struck me. I went to the web site. Alas, this web site does
not
live up to its claim as a collection of "basic literature in the field
of design
theory and research."
Some of the material is not basic, and large amounts have nothing to do
either with design theory or with research. While this may be "some of
the
most popular references in design research," one would have to do a
citation analysis to make that claim. There are tools you can use for
such
a search. I looked up the citation pattern for some of the items in the
collection and I'd hardly call them popular. But popularity is not the
criterion
by which one measures the value of such a compilation.
There are two objections I'd make to the site. First, these are not the
"texts
that should give orientation on theories, approaches and methods to
newcomers in the field, like beginning PhD students." Most of the texts
here
would not serve that purpose at all. Of course, you can argue that this
is only
my opinion. Perhaps so, but I'd argue that this precisely the the kind
of
information that requires an informed opinion by skilled supervisors
and
scholars -- once they are qualified as doctoral supervisors. That's
also why
many universities now run supervisor training. The second objection is
that
this material does not show much dedication. The most recent entries
were
posted in December of 2009. This looks more like a social network site
than a research compilation.
If you wanted useful reading lists and bibliographies, you wouldn't
look here.
You could, however, seek purposefully organized bibliographies compiled
by
subject experts on the specific topics that interest you.
The real bibliographic need in our field is to see some serious
literature
reviews, not an empty series of titles -- some of varying quality --
assembled
without focus or apparent reason,
If you really want to follow up on Victor's post, why don't you choose
a topic
and write a literature review article? Our journals have far too few of
them.
Depending on the topic, I'm sure that a serious literature review
article would
find a welcome in such journals as Design Issues, Design Studies, the
International Journal of Design, the Journal of Design Research, Design
and
Culture or others. Serious literature review articles are considered to
be core
contributions in most fields, and they would make a similar
contribution to the
fields of design and design research.
Jane Webster and Richard T. Watson (2002) wrote an excellent article in
Management Information Science Quarterly on writing a literature
review. It’s
short, but it covers the key issues and gives good how-to-advice. See:
Webster, Jane, and Richard T. Watson. 2002. “Analyzing the Past to
Prepare for
the Future: Writing a Literature Review.” Management Information
Science
Quarterly, Vol. 26 No. 2, (June), xiii-xxiii.
Yours,
Ken
Rosan Chow wrote:
--snip--
As you know, there have been some attempts/efforts to build a
bibilography of
design literatures. We can start one more time, but perhaps in a
different way:
My young dedicated colleagues (yes I adore them) have introduced me to
Mendeley
and they own a group called
Design Theory Basics,
http://www.mendeley.com/groups/483191/design-theory-basics/
I would like to invite you and others to join the group and add your
reading list.
Perhaps through this channel, we can achieve something organically,
openly and
collectively.
--snip--
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor
Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology |
Melbourne, Australia
[log in to unmask] | Ph: +61 3 9214 6078
Faculty www.swinburne.edu.au/design
|