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National design histories have been both a popular and a contested format. Particularly in these intensively globalized times, the nation has been questioned as an appropriate framework to study design. This book argues that even under globalization, nations flourish and disseminate. Nations as frameworks for design enquiry need nevertheless be re-evaluated to incorporate the mutual influence between international and national dynamics. As the editors state, ‘… the national framework—although contested—remains a vital and rewarding organizational concept in the writing of history not in spite of its contested character, but because of it’ (p. 7). To achieve this aim, the editors chose a plural approach based on specific case studies that present an alternative to ‘world histories of design’, which they consider as too ‘prone to generalizing about the commonality of huge international regions’ (p. 7). This volume gathers essays from different authors scrutinizing empirical material on specific geographies and periods and offering a range of methodologies for writing national design histories. On the one hand, the case studies provide ‘knowledge of underexplored nations and regions’. On the other hand, they offer ‘new and unique understandings of how design cultures are formed and operationalized in the complex and contested processes of forging societies, collectives, communities, institutions and identities’ (p. 5). This results in a volume gathering examples from all the five continents and offering a canopy of visions for how the national can be used to study design. The editors proclaim a certain predilection for a comparative approach between nations themselves and between events in the same nation. At the same time, however, this methodology has not been imposed on the authors, who were allowed ‘to explore a range of approaches’ (p. 13).
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