Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization

Kjetil Fallan (Ed.)

ISBN 10: 1785331558 / ISBN 13: 9781785331558

Published by Berghahn Books, 2016

About this Item

In design history, globalization is deeply intertwined with a long-held bias towards Western, industrialized nations. By reassessing the role of regional and national design histories and challenging the claim that nation states are obsolete in identity construction, Designing Worlds reflects on new national narratives from around the world. Editor(s): Fallan, Kjetil; Lees-Maffei, Grace. Series: Making Sense of History. Num Pages: 302 pages, 72 illustrations. BIC Classification: AC; AK. Category: (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 161 x 237 x 21. Weight in Grams: 564. . 2016. Hardcover. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781785331558

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization
• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1785331558
• ISBN 13: 9781785331558
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

From consumer products to architecture to advertising to digital technology, design is an undeniably global phenomenon. Yet despite their professed transnational perspective, historical studies of design have all too often succumbed to a bias toward Western, industrialized nations. This diverse but rigorously curated collection recalibrates our understanding of design history, reassessing regional and national cultures while situating them within an international context. Here, contributors from five continents offer nuanced studies that range from South Africa to the Czech Republic, all the while sensitive to the complexities of local variation and the role of nation-states in identity construction.

About the Authors

Kjetil Fallan is Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo. He is the author of Designing Modern Norway: A History of Design Discourse and Design History: Understanding Theory and Method, editor of Scandinavian Design: Alternative Histories, and co-editor, with Grace Lees-Maffei, of Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design.

Grace Lees-Maffei is Professor of Design History at the University of Hertfordshire and Programme Director for DHeritage, the Professional Doctorate in Heritage. She is author of Design at Home: Domestic Advice Literature in the UK and the US since 1945, editor of Writing Design: Words and Objects and Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things, co-editor with Kjetil Fallan of Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design, and co-editor with Rebecca Houze, of The Design History Reader.