François-X.,
In response to your request for references, the first that jumped to mind is
Arjun Appadurai's book. The 'material culture and consumption' literature may
be the best place to look for information about the artifact "once it is out
there in the social milieu." This comes from fairly 'traditional' sociological
and anthropological perspectives which generally have little sensitivity toward
typical design issues. Perhaps you are familiar with much of this work given
your cross-disciplinary position.
Hope this helps and is not too far off the mark.
Bruce
************
Appadurai, A. (Ed.) 1986 The social life of things. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
HEAVILY CITED. COMMONLY CREDITED AS BEING THE FIRST MAJOR (EDITED) WORK
LEGITIMATING CONSUMPTION AS A FIELD OF SERIOUS ANTHROPOLOGICAL INQUIRY.
APPADURAI'S INTRO CHAPTER AND THE ONE BY IGOR KOPYTOFF ARE STANDOUTS.
************
************
Mauss, M. [1950] 1990 The Gift. New York: W.W. Norton.
CLASSIC TEXT THAT MANAGED TO BREAK OUT OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES AND READ
BY OTHERS. MILTON GLASIER EVEN REFERENCED THIS BOOK AS BEING VERY INFLUENTIAL
IN A RECENT ARTICLE IN A GRAPHICS PERIODICAL WHOSE NAME ESCAPES ME ("HOW"
MAYBE). PERHAPS THIS IS APPROPRIATE AS MILTON DID NOT MENTION THE BOOK BY NAME
ONLY THAT IT WAS AN OLDER ANTHROPOLOGY TEXT ABOUT GIFTS.
************
************
CERTAINLY THE MOST PROLIFIC ADVOCATE OF MATERIAL CULTURE AND CONSUMPTION
STUDIES IS DANIEL MILLER. (IN 'ACKNOWLEDGING CONSUMPTION' HE LAYS OUT A GOOD
HISTORY OF THE FIELD.) HIS PROGRAM AT UCL HAS PRODUCED MUCH OF WHAT IS OUT
THERE. HIS WEBSITE LISTS HIS RECENT WORKS/PUBLICATIONS AND SOME OF WHAT HIS
PAST AND PRESENT PHD STUDENTS ARE DOING. ONE THAT I DONT THINK IS ON HIS
WEBSITE BUT IS HIS FIRST MAJOR WORK: Miller, D. 1987 Material culture and mass
consumption. New York: Basil Blackwell.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Anthropology/index2.htm
************
************
THE BEST BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THIS SORT OF THING I HAVE FOUND. DON SLATER ALSO
WROTE A PRETTY GOOD BOOK ON THE TOPIC: Slater, D. R. 1997 Consumer Culture and
Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. NOT SURE IF THIS EXTENSIVE WEB BIBLIO HAS
BEEN UPDATED SINCE 1999.
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/slater/consumer/biblioa.htm
"This bibliography contains about 1,500 references on consumer culture drawn
from my personal database. It therefore reflects my own interests (social
theory, economic sociology and history, leisure, advertising and marketing)."
************
HERE ARE A FEW OTHERS, SOME WELL KNOWN, OTHERS FROM PERIPHERAL DISCIPLINES:
Baudrillard, J. 1996 [197?] The system of objects. New York: Verso.
Baudrillard, J. 1988. "Consumer Society." In M. Poster (ed.) Jean Baudrillard:
Selected Writings. California: Stanford University Press.
Douglas, M. & Isherwood, B. [1979] 1996 The World of Goods: Towards an
Anthropology of Consumption. New York: Routledge.
McCracken, G. 1988 Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic
Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.
Corrigan, P. 1997 The Sociology of Consumption. London: Sage Publications.
Lunt, P. K. & S. Livingstone 1992 Mass Consumption and Personal Identity:
Everyday Economic Experience. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Belk, R. W. 1988 “Possessions and the Extended Self." Journal of Consumer
Research, 15, 139-168.
Dittmar, H. 1992 The social psychology of material possessions. Hemel
Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Berry, C. J. 1994 The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical
Investigation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Belk, R. 1983 "Worldly Possessions: Issues and Criticisms." In , R. P. Bagozzi
& A.M. Tybout (eds.) Advances in Consumer Research, 10. Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Association for Consumer Research. 514-519.
Rudmin, F. W. (ed.) 1991 To Have Possessions. California: Select Press.
***************
Bruce M. Tharp
PhD Candidate, Sociocultural Anthropology
The University of Chicago
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>
> I am looking forward to compiling a comprehensive and annotated bibliography
>
> on all aspects of the artifact, both in Designer's mind and once it is out
> there in the social milieu.
>
> In addition to few entries already in my files, like some of Ken's references
>
> and Lubomir's recently published paper on "(...) The Social Nature of Design
>
> Objects and the Implications for the Profession" (Popov, L., in the Journal
>
> of Design Research, vol. 2 (2) (http://jdr.tudelft.nl/), I shall warmly
> welcome more contributions from other list members.
>
> With many thanks in advance.
>
>
>
>
> François-X. N.I. NSENGA
> Independent Scholar
>
> Teacher and Researcher
> in Sociology and Industrial Design
>
>
> Box 643, Snowdon
> Montréal, Québec
> CANADA H3X 3X8
>
>
> Phone&Fax: (514) 737-8300
>
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