Design and Agency: Critical Perspectives on Identities, Histories, and Practices

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Design and Agency brings together leading international design scholars and practitioners to address the concept of agency in relation to objects, organisations and people. The authors set out to expand the scope of design history and practice, avoiding the heroic narratives of a typical modernist approach. They consider both how the agents of design construct and express their identities and subjectivities through practice, while also investigating the distinctive contribution of design in the construction of individual identity and subjectivity. Individual chapters explore notions of agency in a range of design disciplines and historical periods, including the agency of women in effecting changes to the design of offices and working practices; the role of Jeffrey Lindsay and Buckminster Fuller in developing the design of a geodesic dome; Le Corbusier's 'Casa Curutchet'; a re-consideration of the gendered historiography of the 'Jugendstil' movement, and Bruce Mau's design exhibitions. Taken together, the essays in Design and Agency provide a much-needed response to the traditional texts which dominate design history. With a broad chronological span from 1900 to the present, and an equally broad understanding of the term 'design', it expands how we view the discipline, and shows how design itself can be an agent for social, cultural and economic change.

Reviews

Design and Agency shows design (people, spaces and objects) to be powerful, politically engaged and, often, highly personal. Through a range of examples from the later nineteenth-century to the present, an international group of authors explores the role of the systems and institutions of design in constructing identities. This thoughtful and thought-provoking volume provides an agenda for design and its histories, and calls for a new ethical way of being, knowing and designing. -- Grace Lees-Maffei, Professor of Design History, University of Hertfordshire, UK
If action indeed speaks louder than words, we need to pay closer attention to the myriad ways power relations are manifested and performed in design culture. Through a delightfully diverse collection of case studies, Design and Agency helps us think more carefully about who and what are the moving forces in our designed world, and how, when, where, why, and to what degree these agents impact the design of our lives. -- Kjetil Fallan, Professor of Design History, University of Oslo, Norway
The eighteen essays that make up this volume explore the plethora of ideas that arise from a consideration of the relationship between the concepts of agency and design. The ambitions of the editors and the contributors to (re)consider the traditional narratives and historiography of design have been fully realised. -- Penny Sparke, Professor of Design History, Kingston University, UK

Author Bio

John Potvin is Professor of Modern Art and Design History at Concordia University, Canada. He is the editor of Oriental Interiors (Bloomsbury 2015). Marie-ve Marchand is Affiliate Assistant Professor of Art History at Concordia University, Canada.