Design in Motion: The Everyday Object and the Global Division of Design Labour

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dc.contributor.advisorHadlaw, Jan
dc.creatorHodson, Elise
dc.date.accessioned2019-07-02T16:14:17Z
dc.date.available2019-07-02T16:14:17Z
dc.date.copyright2019-03-01
dc.date.issued2019-07-02
dc.date.updated2019-07-02T16:14:17Z
dc.degree.disciplineCommunication & Culture, Joint Program with Ryerson University
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThe practice of design has become obscured by global networks of production, circulation, and consumption. Traditional design studies tend to focus on high-profile products, presenting heroic designers as the primary authors of works of design. This approach is inadequate for understanding design in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Contemporary design is better understood as an iterative and distributed process of give-and-take among actors, human and non-human, including people, tools, places, and ideas. It is a process that is influenced by conditions along the commodity chain that fall outside of the designers traditionally recognized sphere. This research demonstrates that commonly held conceptions of designers as sole authors and of design work as a largely intellectual, creative activity distanced from manufacturing, misrepresent the real practices and relations of design labour in the current global economy. Two object ethnographies follow the production, circulation, and consumption of everyday, mass-produced goods: the Vanessa steel-toe boot by Mellow Walk and the Non Stop flatware by Gourmet Settings. These case studies map networks of design labour across continents, countries, cities, and generations. Primary research includes 18 interviews, observations of environments and practices, and the analysis of material evidence. This process reveals actors whose contributions have typically been omitted from design history, and describes practices of design that contest traditional depictions of designers, design work, and evidence thereof. This research contributes a fuller and more accurate understanding of the range of creative labour and labourers involved in the design and development of goods for global markets while challenging the view of these goods as placeless and culture-free. I respond to the call by design historians to extend the scope of designs histories beyond the West, and I build on the work of design and creativity scholars who identify design thinking outside of recognized design roles. My work challenges established hierarchies of design, including who is permitted to design, which countries are perceived as superior sources of design and manufacturing expertise, and the hand-head dichotomy that underwrites how we think about design and that has been entrenched in traditional conceptions of manufacturing and the global division of labour. Understanding how the work of design is distributed and how it has changed in response to globalization gives insight into the politics of production and consumption.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/36271
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subject.keywordsDesign
dc.subject.keywordsDesign history
dc.subject.keywordsDesign studies
dc.subject.keywordsDesigner
dc.subject.keywordsDesign practice
dc.subject.keywordsDesign process
dc.subject.keywordsMaterial culture
dc.subject.keywordsEveryday design
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal
dc.subject.keywordsGlobalization
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal design
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal commodity studies
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal value chains
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal commodity chains
dc.subject.keywordsActor Network Theory
dc.subject.keywordsProduction
dc.subject.keywordsCirculation
dc.subject.keywordsConsumption
dc.subject.keywordsDistributed authorship
dc.subject.keywordsCollaborative design
dc.subject.keywordsCanada
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian design
dc.subject.keywordsItaly
dc.subject.keywordsItalian design
dc.subject.keywordsMexico
dc.subject.keywordsMexican design
dc.subject.keywordsVietnam
dc.subject.keywordsVietnamese design
dc.subject.keywordsChina
dc.subject.keywordsChinese design
dc.subject.keywordsKorea
dc.subject.keywordsKorean design
dc.subject.keywordsMass production
dc.subject.keywordsMass consumption
dc.subject.keywordsManufacturing
dc.subject.keywordsGlobal economy
dc.subject.keywordsEthnography
dc.subject.keywordsObject ethnography
dc.subject.keywordsDesign thinking
dc.subject.keywordsCreativity
dc.subject.keywordsCreative labour
dc.subject.keywordsDivision of labour
dc.subject.keywordsCraft
dc.subject.keywordsIndustrial upgrading
dc.subject.keywordsFetishism
dc.subject.keywordsNational identity
dc.subject.keywordsMade in Canada
dc.subject.keywordsMade in America
dc.subject.keywordsMade in China
dc.subject.keywordsMade in Mexico
dc.subject.keywordsMade in Italy
dc.subject.keywordsFootwear
dc.subject.keywordsSafety boots
dc.subject.keywordsSafety shoes
dc.subject.keywordsFlatware
dc.subject.keywordsCutlery
dc.subject.keywordsStainless steel
dc.subject.keywordsPost-industrial
dc.subject.keywordsIndustrial
dc.subject.keywordsIndustrial design
dc.subject.keywordsGraphic design
dc.subject.keywordsSystems design
dc.subject.keywordsHolistic design
dc.subject.keywordsWhole systems thinking
dc.subject.keywordsPackaging
dc.subject.keywordsCore-periphery
dc.subject.keywordsVernacular
dc.subject.keywordsBricolage
dc.subject.keywordsIntellectual Property
dc.subject.keywordsFactory
dc.subject.keywordsRetail
dc.subject.keywordsMellow Walk
dc.subject.keywordsGourmet Settings
dc.titleDesign in Motion: The Everyday Object and the Global Division of Design Labour
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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