Terry raised a very important issue that we have discussed sometime ago,
but we evidently left it as an unfinished job.
I would like to reiterate my old posts that the controversy about the
status of design research can be solved more efficiently if we introduce
the terms "technical science" or "design science" (to indicate that it is
not restricted only to the engineering professions) and the corresponding
"technical/design discipline." Sciences and practices have very different
structure and the university tradition to treat everything as a science
might not be the most productive approach to reconstruct practices (and
design as a form or domain of practice).
This is just a suggestion for one possible direction or thread to pursue in
eventual discussion. There are some explorations in this directions in the
1970's and they indicate that the approach has pretty high potential.
Regards,
Lubomir Popov
At 10:09 PM 9/10/2000 +0800, Dr. Terence Love wrote:
>Design research and, to some extent, designing, is widely described as
>'multi-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary or interdisciplinary (or any
>combination). Philosophically, conceptually and terminologically this leaves
>design research in a relatively undefined state because if it is
>multi/cross/inter disciplinary then by implication it does not exist as an
>integrated discipline itself without some sort of proposal that it is a kind
>of meta-discipline that sits above other disciplines.
>
>Many authors refer to the domain-based nature of much design research. This
>complementarity between domain and discipline is I feel a key issue. Making
>a terminological and conceptual shift by exchanging 'discipline' and
>'domain' appears to offer a way of resolving the above problem, and perhaps
>describing the situation in a clearer fashion.
>
>From this perspective, Design Research is an integrated discipline
>(singular) that operates in a multi-domain, cross-domain or inter-domain (or
>any combination)fashion ( as opposed to the tacitly held picture that it is
>a domain that operates in a multi/cross/inter disciplinary manner). This
>approach offers the basis for avoiding some of the single/multiple
>discipline schisms and appears to offer a single discipline basis for
>clarifying many of the research and conceptual issues relating to
>domain-specific and domain-free aspects of designing and designs.
>
>
>Best wishes
>
>Terry
>
>________________________________________
>
>Dr. Terence Love
>We-B Centre
>School of Management Information Systems
>Edith Cowan University
>Churchlands, Western Australia 6030
>[log in to unmask] +61 (0)8 9273 8682
>________________________________________
>
>
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