DIFFERENCES MAKING A DIFFERENCE:
A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ARTICULATING DIFFERENT DESIGN TRADITIONS

In order to go “beyond what design is” the paper question the very idea of defining the concept of design in terms of »is«. Instead it takes up another trajectory of thought where concepts are highly contextual and therefore too elusive to be captured in simple universal definitions. The paper suggests an alternative theoretical framework entirely based on different traditions’ ways of thinking, understanding and working i.e. those things that (more or less unarticulated) underpins each and every professional praxis. As analytical tools are concepts like »thinking style«, »thinking collective« (coined by Ludwik Fleck), »theory in use« vs. »espoused theory« (coined by Donald Schön and Chris Argyris) and “ideal type” (coined by Max Weber) used. »Ideal types« can for instance be different design traditions like e.g. Design Management, Design Engineering and Industrial Design. Arguable, each of them seems to have a specific set of »thinking styles« reinforced by its own community of peers. It also seems to have as a specific »theory in use« that seems to be more or less (in)consistent with each »thinking collective’s« own »espoused theory«.

The analytical framework makes it possible to reveal different characteristics within different design traditions, facilitating a discussion about appropriate and different roles, games of power, evolutionary change, diversity etcetera; all within the ‘ecology of design’. Or, in other words, our »design systems«. The approach scrutinized by the paper is primarily based on systemic thinking and is therefore both interacting and coinciding with contemporary schools of »Innovation Systems« and »Product- and Service Systems«.

The framework is applied on both a literature overview and initial empirical material from media discourses and qualitative interviews collected within the research project: Design Articulations – when well articulated notions and unarticulated self images meet.

Key words: Design Research, Industrial Design, Design Systems, Product- and Service Systems and Innovation Systems.