The Goods of Design

Ariel Guersenzvaig

doi:10.5771/9781786615428

Summary

A 2022 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title

What ends should designers pursue? To what extent should they care about the societal and environmental impact of their work? And why should they care at all? Given the key influence design has on the way people live their lives, designing is fraught with ethical issues. Yet, unlike education or nursing, it lacks widespread professional principles for addressing these issues.

Rooted in a communitarian view of design practice, this lively and accessible book examines design through the lens of professions, offering a critical vision that enables practitioners, academics and students of design in all disciplines to reflect on the practice’s overarching purposes. Considering how these are connected to others' flourishing and moulded by community interactions, "The Goods of Design" argues for a practice-based approach to cultivate professional ethics; it provides a normative direction that can meaningfully guide professional design activity, both individually and collectively. The volume also looks into the implications work has for the designer's self-growth as a person, offering ways to discover and navigate the complex tensions between personal and professional life.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2021
ISBN-Print: 978-1-78661-540-4
ISBN-Online: 978-1-78661-542-8
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 294
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgements No access
3. List of Figures No access
1. Aligning Our View About Design No access
2. Aligning Our View About Ethics No access
3. Who Is This Book For? No access
4. Plan for the Book No access
5. Notes No access
1. 1. Conditions and Epistemic Boundaries for Design No access
  2. Two Views of Design Activity No access
  3. The Normative Dimension of Design Outcomes No access
  4. Notes No access
2. 1. Occupations and Professions No access
  2. Two Key Elements Beyond Competence No access
  3. Professionalism and Its Discontents No access
  4. Professional Ethics in a Nutshell No access
  5. Doesn’t Design Need a Code of Ethics? No access
  6. Notes No access
3. 1. The Cognitive Element No access
  2. The Public Service Element No access
  3. Design Profession or Design Professions? No access
  4. Notes No access
4. 1. First Objection: Manipulation No access
  2. Reply to the Objection of Manipulation No access
  3. Second Objection: Consumerism No access
  4. Reply to the Objection of Consumerism No access
  5. Third Objection: Unintended Consequences No access
  6. Unintended Consequences Revisited: Taming the Uncertainty No access
  7. Where Ethics and Design Meet No access
  8. Notes No access
1. 1. Charting the Ground for the Inquiry No access
  2. A Direction for the Inquiry No access
  3. The Need for Broadness No access
  4. Limitations, Difficulties, and Perspectives No access
  5. Notes No access
2. 1. A Primer to Virtue Ethics No access
  2. Alternative Approaches: Principle-based Ethics No access
  3. Enter Alasdair MacIntyre No access
  4. Notes No access
1. 1. From Design Practice to Overarching Purpose No access
  2. Design as a MacIntyrean Practice No access
  3. A Key Contribution: Extending Abilities and Powers No access
  4. Design’s Purpose and the Flourishing of Others No access
  5. From Powers to Capabilities No access
  6. Reflections around the Telos of Design No access
  7. Regulative Ideals as Internalised Guidelines for Action No access
  8. Notes No access
2. 1. Design and the Virtues No access
  2. Responsibility as a Virtue No access
  3. Empathy and Moral Imagination No access
  4. Design Complexity and Practical Wisdom No access
  5. Two Objections: ‘Responsivity’ and Paternalism No access
  6. Notes No access
3. 1. Institutions and External Goods: Tensions and Corruption No access
  2. Constancy, Integrity, and Compartmentalisation No access
  3. Closing Remarks and Connections No access
  4. Notes No access
1. How to Foster the Development of Ethical Expertise No access
2. Connections with Design Methodology No access
3. Notes No access
1. Design and Policy Making No access
2. Participatory Design and Emerging Roles for Design No access
3. Consumption and the Anthropocene No access
4. Philosophy and Studies of Technology No access
5. Design Ethics No access
6. General Introductions to Ethics No access
7. Virtue Ethics No access
8. Applied Topics Analysed from a Virtue Ethical Perspective No access
9. The Capability Approach No access
10. Capabilities and Design No access
Bibliography No access Pages 273 - 288
Index No access Pages 289 - 294