Dear David,
This is a splendid idea. From time to time, Victor Margolin posts a note here suggesting a deeper engagement in the literature of our field. Some of us welcome it, but there are always a few posts to suggest why this will not help to advance the field. In my perspective, however, a better understanding of issues and philosophy, and of the way things were once done, is central to any mature research field. This is even true of fields that rely on the latest advances for breakthroughs – chemistry, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and physics are cases in point.
With respect to your suggestion, I can put forward two bits of news you will find encouraging.
First, I have a PhD student who is working on design thinking. This will include a massive literature review. This is part of the CSIRO Design Capacity Mapping Project. He won’t be going back to the 19th century, but you can expect a serious and deep review of the past fifty years.
Second, Heico Wesselius and I have been compiling a massive archive on the literature of design thinking, also for the CSIRO Design Capacity Mapping Project. We have assembled most of the scholarly and scientific literature that we have been able to find. Again, most of this is within the past fifty years
We are about to start a similar compilation of literature for a second library based on professional sources, firms, reports, even gray literature and white papers.
We welcome any suggestions or references for either compilation. Please send any suggestions off-list to Heico Wesselius at:
[log in to unmask]<file://localhost/applewebdata/::2A57802C-7605-4AA5-85B2-F57109C44D88:[log in to unmask]>
We are still in the early phases of our different compilations. We’re doing the kind of serious literature review that should support most research projects but doesn’t due to time and resources. We have the time and resources, so we’re building a careful foundation for what comes next in the CSIRO Design Capacity Mapping Project. To be sure, we won’t quite know what that is until we finish the review.
Along the way, we expect to publish bibliographies and reports on our milestone work – including a bibliography on design thinking. At some point, this will expand to become a literature review article, though it may not get back as far as the 1800s.
Off-list suggestions to Heico will help us to do a better job.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Home Page http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/people/Professor-Ken-Friedman-ID22.html<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design> Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman About Me Page http://about.me/ken_friedman
Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China
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David Sless wrote:
—snip—
I find myself once again saddened by the shallow sense of history that pervades much of the discussion on this list.
Using recent references that persistently fail to acknowledge much of the seminal work that preceded it is not encouraging.
Perhaps it’s time someone did a PhD thesis on the history of ideas about design thinking, going back at least to the 19th century.
—snip—
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