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Economies of Design
How are the rise of design and neoliberalism connected? How does design change the way we operate as economic beings? What is the economic significance of design?
Historically, design has been promoted for its ability to add value to products and services. In contemporary capitalism, however, it assumes a more central and more complex role. Design today is both influenced by, and actively shapes, our economic systems.
This ground-breaking book shines a spotlight on how design has become embedded in political economies. It reveals the multiple ways in which design has emerged as a vital feature of neoliberal economic systems, from urban strategies to commercial processes to government policy-making. Drawing on a range of global examples, Guy
explains the economic processes of design shows how design works to support financial systems explores the relationship between design and intellectual property discusses the role of design in the public sector highlights the impact of design in informal and alternative economies brings theory to life with case studies on home improvements, fast fashion, shopping centres and more. Economies of Design provides a thought-provoking new way of understanding and talking about the meanings of design in contemporary capitalism. It is an essential companion for students of design and the creative industries across the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Historically, design has been promoted for its ability to add value to products and services. In contemporary capitalism, however, it assumes a more central and more complex role. Design today is both influenced by, and actively shapes, our economic systems.
This ground-breaking book shines a spotlight on how design has become embedded in political economies. It reveals the multiple ways in which design has emerged as a vital feature of neoliberal economic systems, from urban strategies to commercial processes to government policy-making. Drawing on a range of global examples, Guy
explains the economic processes of design shows how design works to support financial systems explores the relationship between design and intellectual property discusses the role of design in the public sector highlights the impact of design in informal and alternative economies brings theory to life with case studies on home improvements, fast fashion, shopping centres and more. Economies of Design provides a thought-provoking new way of understanding and talking about the meanings of design in contemporary capitalism. It is an essential companion for students of design and the creative industries across the arts, humanities and social sciences.
- GenresDesign
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 13, 2017
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December 1, 2019Julier’s elucidation of design and its economic determinism provides a compelling case to hold the design industry accountable for perpetuating the neoliberal orthodoxies. This confrontation is a timely act amidst a prevailing fetishism of creativity and changes, of opportunistic design innovation frameworks and the recent surge in business consultancies’ acquisitions of design agencies. The close account of the precarious design labor effectively disperses any pretense autonomy of the designers’ creativity and instead, locates these actors and their agency at the mercy of the market. Design practice is persuasively shown to have clearly operated within—or at least not far off from—a reductive and untouchable horizon governed by neoliberalism. Hence, this sober confrontation, rather than a hindrance to the legitimization of design practice, reveals repressive boundaries as explicit targets for more critical design engagement, therefore reclaiming design as a potential cultivator of alternative and experimental imaginaries outside of the neoliberal sensorium.
In this regard, this exposition is not only significant to commercial design practice but also to the peripheral and emerging orientations such as civic design, critical design, and design activism. While these practices have focused on recovering the democratic and emancipatory function of design through engagement strategies such as participatory inclusion, direct and intentional interventions on the economic relations themselves have been limited and superficial. This poses an urgent need for change in order for these emerging practices to effectively insert itself into the hegemonic paradigm of design.
In this regard, this exposition is not only significant to commercial design practice but also to the peripheral and emerging orientations such as civic design, critical design, and design activism. While these practices have focused on recovering the democratic and emancipatory function of design through engagement strategies such as participatory inclusion, direct and intentional interventions on the economic relations themselves have been limited and superficial. This poses an urgent need for change in order for these emerging practices to effectively insert itself into the hegemonic paradigm of design.
Displaying 1 of 1 review