Design Research ─ Synergies from Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Design Research is a new interdisciplinary research area with a social science orientation at its heart, and this book explores how scientific knowledge can be put into practice in ways that are at once ethical, creative, helpful, and extraordinary in their results.

In order to clarify the common aspects – in terms of features and approaches – that characterize all strands of research disciplines addressing design, Design Research undertakes an in-depth exploration of the social processes involved in doing design, as well as analyses of the contexts for design use. The book further elicits ‘synergies from interdisciplinary perspectives’ by discussing and elaborating on differing academic perspectives, theoretical backgrounds, and design concept definitions, and evaluating their unique contribution to a general core of design research.

This book is an exciting contribution to this little explored field, and offers a truly interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of design and the design process. It is valuable reading for students in disciplines such as design studies and theory, participatory design, informatics, arts based education, planning, sociology, and interdisciplinary programmes in humanities and technology.

Jesper Simonsen is Professor of Design Studies at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University. Research interests include Participatory Design, and offering theories and methods for IT design in an organizational context. Recent publications include Participatory IT Design: Designing for Business and Workplace Realities (MIT Press, 2004).

Jorgen Ole Barenholdt is Professor in Human Geography at the Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change (ENSPAC), Roskilde University, leading the Space, Place, Mobility and Urban Studies Research Unit. His books include Performing Tourist Places, with Haldrup, Larsen and Urry (Ashgate, 2004), Coping with Distances (Berghahn, 2007), and Mobility and Place, edited with Granas (Ashgate, 2008).

Monika Buscher is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University and Co-director of the mobilities lab – an interdisciplinary research laboratory. Recent publications include Configuring User designer Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Springer 2009), Ethnographies of Diagnostic Work (Palgrave 2009), Mobile Methods (Routledge 2010).

John Damm Scheuer is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University. His research interests focus on the encounter of innovative ideas and practice in organisations. Recent publications include The Anatomy of Change: A Neo-Institutional Perspective, co-ed (CBS Press, 2008), and a contribution to Innovation and the Creative Process: Towards Innovation with Care, ed. Lars Fuglsang (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008).