Description
Book Synopsis From consumer products to architecture to advertising to digital technology, design is an undeniably global phenomenon. Yet despite their professed transnational perspective, historical studies of design have all too often succumbed to a bias toward Western, industrialized nations. This diverse but rigorously curated collection recalibrates our understanding of design history, reassessing regional and national cultures while situating them within an international context. Here, contributors from five continents offer nuanced studies that range from South Africa to the Czech Republic, all the while sensitive to the complexities of local variation and the role of nation-states in identity construction.
Trade Review “This highly interesting volume provides varied methodological approaches and contributions to new national design histories that will undoubtedly enhance research in global design studies.” • National Identities
“…the contributions are valuable beyond question and the cases studied original. This book will therefore be a referent for future studies on national design histories.” • Journal of Design History
“This is a lively, spirited, and imaginative volume whose editors have assembled an impressive range of contributions. It is likely to be embraced not just within design history but also by scholars working in comparative history, art history, spatial theory, and material culture.” • Peter McNeil, University of Technology, Sydney
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Introduction: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization
Grace-Lees-Maffei and Kjetil Fallan
Chapter 1. Designs on/in Africa
Dipti Bhagat
Chapter 2. Does Southern African Design History Exist?
Deirdre Pretorius
Chapter 3. Designing The South African Nation: From Nature To Culture
Jacques Lange and Jeanne van Eeden
Chapter 4. Resisting Global Homogeneity but Craving Global Markets: Kiwiana and Contemporary Design Practice in New Zealand
Claudia Bell
Chapter 5. Creativity within a Geographical-National Framework: From Modern Japanese Design to Pevsner’s Art Geography
Ariyuki Kondo
Chapter 6. Imagining the Indian Nation: The Design of Gandhi’s Dandi March and Nehru’s Republic Day Parade
Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan
Chapter 7. Troubled Geography: Imagining Lebanon in 1960s Tourist Promotion
Zeina Maasri
Chapter 8. Czech Glass or Bohemian Crystal? The Nationality of Design in the Czech Context
Marta Filipová
Chapter 9. The Myth of Danish Design and the Implicit Claims of Labels
Stina Teilmann-Lock
Chapter 10. Altering a Homogenized Heritage: Articulating Heterogeneous Material Cultures in Norway and Sweden
Kjetil Fallan and Christina Zetterlund
Chapter 11. A Special Relationship: The UK-US Transatlantic Domestic Dialogue
Grace Lees-Maffei
Chapter 12. Surveying the Borders: Authenticity in Mexican-American Food Packaging, Imagery and Architecture
Nicolas P. Maffei
Chapter 13. An Empire of One’s Own: Individualism and Domestic Built Form in 21st Century Jamaica
Davinia Gregory
Chapter 14. The Quest for Modernity: A Global/National Approach to a History of Design in Latin America
Patricia Lara-Betancourt
Chapter 15. Of Coffee, Nature and Exclusion: Designing Brazilian National Identity at International Exhibitions 1867 & 1904
Livia Rezende
Index
