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** High Priority ** ** Reply Requested When Convenient ** Hello all The empirical sociological literature on academic disciplines (including Becher and Trowler) shows us that like many other concepts the notion of discipline and other key terms, discourse community, profession, etc., are all relational terms. That is they signal certain kinds of affiliations and practices through which we can categorize albeit in continua like ways the strength and characteristics of certain groups (or collectives, communities, etc. - these terms also have different relative meanings). My reading of the limited literature on design disciplines sees lots of programmatic and interested statements about what they are or are not but little if any empirical sociological studies (there are one or two). The terms profession, field and discipline are often used interchangeably but may be distinguished for research purposes and probably should be. To some extent the 'blase - we do it all' attitude of designers (not so much architects and engineers who already have professional and social status) and particular representatives seems to some extent to be a disguised reaction to an inferiority complex, perhaps. Anyway Sunday afternoon Melbourne 20 cents worth. Gavin Melles >>> Jacques Giard <[log in to unmask]> 29/09/2007 11:48 pm >>> Christ, John, and list members, On this same topic of disciplines, I was director of the School of Design at Arizona State University until very recently. The school was typical of many multidisciplinary settings. In this case, it included graphic design, industrial design, and interior design. As director, I taught a large, first-year lecture course called 'Design Awareness,' which included all of the students in the three aforementioned design disciplines as well as others such as architecture, engineering, and business. Regularly, students would ask about working across the disciplines and if that was at all possible in their education while at ASU. Not only was the willingness for interdisciplinary activity alive but the desire to belong to a discipline was not yet well developed, or so it appeared. By the third year, however, these same students were deeply entrenched in their discipline of choice. More than that, they had learned the stereotypes of the other disciplines. Interior design students, for example, now saw architecture students as the 'design enemy.' For their part, architecture students now realized that they could design anything‹graphics, products, etc. For a variety of good reasons, the three units of my former school were spun off as individual departments and allowed to pursue their individual disciplinary agendas. As for me, I was asked to create a new academic unit (Cross-College programs), one that would ultimately work across the disciplines of our College, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In doing so, I faced a central challenge: faculty members often identity‹even at a personal level‹with a particular discipline. Believing that I was not about to change that situation, I instead focused on the students because their situation was significantly different. Most were not yet wedded to a discipline. From that perspective, the mission of the academic unit developed to be, "Don't ask me what you want to be but tell me what you want to do." We are sending a clear message that what you want to do in life is perhaps more important than what you want to be. Warm regards from Arizona (and I do literally mean warm) Jacques Giard, PhD Director and Professor Cross-College Programs BA/MSD/PhD College of Design Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-2105 P 480.965.1373 F 480.965.9656 The College of Design‹selected by Business Week as one of the top 60 global D-schools! Swinburne University of Technology CRICOS Provider Code: 00111D NOTICE This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. They may contain information that is privileged or protected by copyright. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution, printing, copying or use is strictly prohibited. The University does not warrant that this e-mail and any attachments are secure and there is also a risk that it may be corrupted in transmission. It is your responsibility to check any attachments for viruses or defects before opening them. If you have received this transmission in error, please contact us on +61 3 9214 8000 and delete it immediately from your system. We do not accept liability in connection with computer virus, data corruption, delay, interruption, unauthorised access or unauthorised amendment. Please consider the environment before printing this email.