Design Research: History, Theory, Practice - Histories for Future-focused Thinking
Recommendations to rebuild the body of feminist work in industrial design
Isabel Prochner, Anne Marchand
Université de Montréal (2)
isabel.prochner@umontreal.ca
Keywords: feminism; industrial design
Abstract
Feminist work exists in industrial design and contributes to society, the feminist movement and the industrial design field itself. Though much of the work dates from the 1980s and 1990s, which leaves the contemporary industrial design field without much feminist critique and intervention, and without the many contributions of this body of work. Thus, there is a need to rebuild the body of feminist work in industrial design. However, the feminist movement in industrial design is difficult to grasp and it’s hard to know how to move forward and contribute to this rebuilding. This paper provides recommendations to inform this complex task based on readings on the topic of feminism and a literature review on feminism in design. The recommendations touch-on how to address the limited presence of feminism in industrial design, the contemporary relevance of older feminist work in industrial design and how contemporary feminism could inform newer work.
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Cite this paper: Prochner, I., Marchand, A. (2016). Recommendations to rebuild the body of feminist work in industrial design. Proceedings of DRS 2016, Design Research Society 50th Anniversary Conference. Brighton, UK, 27–30 June 2016.
This paper will be presented at DRS2016, find it in the conference programme