Experiments in Experience : Towards an Alignment of Research through Design and John Dewey’s Pragmatism
- Submitting institution
-
University of Ulster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 77440798
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1162/desi_a_00531
- Title of journal
- Design Issues
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 5
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 0747-9360
- Open access status
- Technical exception
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
-
https://ulster.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/REF2021/Ee0_WIk6xBxBt1s2Kb64X0kBIIVoVOS0ixLv7EEhp_4HWQ?e=YbloJ5
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
C - Creative Industries Institute
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This article reports a series of epistemological insights relating to the area of design research methodology. The research was grounded in two systematic literature surveys. The first explored the epistemological and ontology claims underpinning methodological discussion in the areas of practice-based and practice-led design research. The second survey focused on the later and middle works of the classical pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, as well as scholarly commentary on these works. Attempting a synthesis to two literatures, this article aims to contexualise Dewey’s theories of inquiry, communication and existence in relation to the key claims identified in practice-based and practice-led literature. It is argued that, held in combination, Dewey’s theories offer a unique approach to knowledge that can be readily and usefully appropriated within existing methodological formulations of design research. As a key contribution, the article outlines the pertinent features of Dewey’s theories, which are seen to hold the potential to enrich the epistemological basis of design research. The rigour of the work is demonstrated in the broad-based referencing of Dewey’s works, the accompanying commentary as well as design literature drawn from across both Europe and North America. The text’s basic argument received the ascent of Design Issues editor and key Dewey scholar Richard Buchanan. It is significant in that it widens and extends the traditional presentation of the relationship of design research and Dewey’s work, which is often based on imported accounts derived from Donald Schön. Further, it offers a viable philosophical framing by which practice-based and practice-led design researchers may begin to align their work.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -