To the discussion started by Glenn:

Designing is as far as I understand it a process where people give value to
other people using matter and form. The value of the product is determined
in a social contex. Since we - the people - are heterogeneous, it obviously
follows that value given the end product varies from person to person,
between groups and cultures. Some claim to have the insight of God and
monopoly on the objective value of the design. Among these are some
environmentalists - because the environment cannot be wrong - or can it?

The discussion of the "must read" - the canon - smacks of the search for
the objective truth using "canonized" authorities as representatives for
God. In my original field of specialization, marketing, the person closest
to being canonized by many (and he isn't even dead or retired) is Phillip
Kotler. He has been the most adept marketeer of established marketing -
some times called "a popularized version of the current grounded theory,"
but never been the one who broke with the socially established truths of
marketing. Others took on the heavy task of questioning the established
before the establishment could support the new as opinion leaders.

The funny thing is that in my field the challenges to established theory
does not often come in the form of books and virtually never in the form of
double-blind reviewed articles in the most reputed journals, but in those
obscure discussion groups as working papers and 3rd and lower ranked
journals that refuse to be conformist. I expect my students to both learn
the established truths and dominant practices in the real world as well as
the cutting and rebel edge in the worlds of theory and practice. Actually,
some of the most interesting renewals of understanding in our field started
with practitoners who for some unexplicable reasons produced successes
(whatever way measured) in ways never thought of and impossible to explain
by current grounded theory. Anybody recognize parrallels in the design
field?

About the criteria for success and failure, good and bad: Morally speaking
we differ rather much in how we judge and feel about own and others'
behavior and solutions - including design (estethic appeal, usefulness,
etc.). Sometimes it is just a feeling of satisfaction or discomfort, etc.
Sometimes our feelings are rather mixed (in art this can be the objective
of the artist). Sometimes we are aware of the feelings only, and sometimes
we reflect on our feelings - and enter the world of ethics. I have
colleagues who are able to teach a whole field of knowledge without once
stopping to reflect on what values their teaching and prescriptions for
good practice are based on. Either they are so sure their value set is the
only right one - playing the personal representative of God, or they
suppress the nagging feeling that there might be more than one way of
judging good or bad. The lack of reflection of impact of own actions on
concerned parties that happended in many classrooms led to for some
obviously not so defendable behavior like the student doing a job for a
commercial client getting secrets out of kind competitors under the
disguise of doing reseach for the common good......

Since being in business or management has to do with exactly the same
concern as designers: creating something of  value for others, we had to
make "others" somewhat more problematic than the customer, the business
partner, etc. Since not all colleagues were equally up to identifying and
treating ethical dilemmas, we went to the experts, and asked the teachers
of our priests to teach us ehtics - not morals! We hope our students and
researchers at least see and understand the ethical issues - including
environmental questions - and maybe the everyday morality in business may
become a little more unoffensive to those who are not our business partners
- dead, alive and not yet born.

A canon of design education may be: Be pluralistic - and question the
authorities in every field - especially the Gods!

Brynjulf Tellefsen
Associate Professor
Department of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management
P. O. Box 4676 Sofienberg
N-0506 Oslo, NORWAY

Phone direct:  +47-22985142
Via exchange:  +47-22985000
Faximile: +47-22985111
Private phone/fax: +47-22149697
e-mail: [log in to unmask]



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