Development patterns of industrial design in the Third World: A conceptual model for newly industrialized countries

Journal of Design History

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 293-307

  Er, H Alpay ^a  

^a HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY   (Turkey)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 14044275868     PISSN: 09524649     EISSN: 17417279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jdh/10.3.293     Document Type: Review

References (58)

1. Some significant examples of these studies are Christopher Lorenz's The Design Dimension: The New Competitive Weapon for Business, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986;
2. and Davidson Ughanwa & Michael Baker's The Role of Design in International Competitiveness, Routledge, London, 1989. Also various studies by the Design Innovation Group of the Open University and UMIST.
3. Gui Bonsiepe, 'Precariousness and ambiguity: industrial design in dependent countries', in J. Bickell & L. McQuiston (eds. ), Design for Need, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1977.
4. James Woudhuysen, 'A new kind of nationalism in design', The Listener, 12 September 1985, pp. 11-12.
5. Pauline Madge, 'Design, ecology, technology: a historiographical review', Journal of Design History, vol. 6, no. 3, 1993, pp. 149-67.
6. Victor Margolin, 'Postwar design literature: a preliminary mapping', in V. Margolin (ed. ), Design Discourse, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989, pp. 265-89.
7. H. Alpay Er & John Langrish, 'Industrial design in developing countries: a review of the literature', IAS Research Papers, RP-66, Institute of Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1993.
8. Gui Bonsiepe, 'Developing countries: awareness of design and the peripheral condition', in C. Provano (ed. ), History of Industrial Design: 1919-1990: The Dominion of Design, Electa, Milan, 1990.
9. 'Design and the state and the state of the design', Design, no. 495, 1990.
10. H. Alpay Er, "The emergence and development patterns of industrial design in newly industrialised countries with particular reference to Turkey', Ph. D. thesis, Institute of Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, October 1994.
11. For a review of the literature in English language on industrial design in the Third World, see; Er & Langrish, op. cit. A short version of the same paper also appeared in ICSIDNews, under the title of 'Developing countries in the design literature', vol. 92, no. 6, 1992, pp. 5-6.
12. Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, Thames & Hudson, London, 1972.
13. In the preface to the second edition of his book (1985), Papanek made the following statement: 'much of what I wrote about design for the Third World in this book's first edition now seems somewhat naïve. None the less I have decided to let some of my observations stand in the second edition because they illustrate the somewhat patronizing viewpoint many of us had about the poorer countries more than a decade ago. ' Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, 2nd edn. , Thomas & Hudson, London, 1985, p. xvii.
14. Margolin, op. cit. p. 285.
15. Gui Bonsiepe, Development through Design, working paper prepared for UNIDO at the request of ICSID, UNIDO/ITD. 80, Vienna, 1973.
16. The association of industrial design with corporate industrial capitalism relies on a historical evaluation of its emergence as a specialized activity within the labour process. According to John Heskett, professional industrial design emerged at the beginning of this century as an essential feature of commercial and industrial activity, a specialist element within the division of labour implicit in mass production and sales. John Heskett, Industrial Design, Thames & Hudson, London, 1980.
17. In a similar vein, Tony Fry argues in his book, Design History: Australia, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1988, that industrial design as a specialist kind of labour is as much as a feature of modern capitalism as mass production, robotics, or advertising.
18. In this sense, the emergence of industrial design in Western countries was an outcome of the development of industrial capitalism. Supporting this conclusion, Penny Sparke in An Introduction to Design and Culture in the 20th Century, Unwin Hyman, London, 1986, points out that by the end of the nineteenth century, all the factors necessary for the development of industrial design had already occurred in both Europe and the United States, such as the expansion of mass production and the emergence of the mass market. Therefore it seems highly problematic to consider industrial design as a 'neutral' development tool that can be used with the same effectiveness in different economic models.
19. Er & Langrish, op. cit. , p. 4.
20. See also Madge, op. cit. , p. 154.
21. Gui Bonsiepe, 'Gui Bonsiepe', in A. L. Lordan (ed. ), Contemporary Designers, St. James Press, London, 1985.
22. This can be best demonstrated by Bonsiepe's own words: 'Very little is to be expected of global corporations towards the promotion of local industrial design because they have a congenital hostility towards any local autonomous technological development', in Bonsiepe, op. cit. , 1977, p. 15. However, Bonsiepe changed his views on Transnational Corporations in the late 1980s. In a recent article he points out that 'since design is a strategic activity, it is not surprising that corporations controlled by outside capital prefer to concentrate their innovative activities at their central headquarters. Nevertheless, the presence of multinational firms does not explain why local firms have not explored more intensely the possibilities that design has to offer'. Gui Bonsiepe, 'Designing the future: perspectives on industrial and graphic design in Latin America', Design Issues, vol. 7, no. 2, 1991, pp-17-24.
23. Some notable examples are: A. Chatterjee, 'Design in developing countries', In search of a Brazilian product identity', all from the Proceedings of the 10th ICSID International Congress, SDI, Dublin, 1977
24. A. G. Rao, 'Realities of the real world: Indian example', In search of a Brazilian product identity', all from the Proceedings of the 10th ICSID International Congress, SDI, Dublin, 1977
25. and M. Rezende, 'In search of a Brazilian product identity', all from the Proceedings of the 10th ICSID International Congress, SDI, Dublin, 1977;
26. S. M. Idris, 'A framework for design policies in Third World development';
27. and L. R. Morales 'Whose needs does design solve?' in R. Langdon & N. Cross (eds. ), Design Policy: Design and Society, Design Council, London, 1984.
28. H. Alpay Er, 'Industrial design in newly industrialised countries: an explorotary study of the factors influencing the development of local design capabilities', IAS Research Papers, RP-72, Institute of Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1993.
29. See, for example, A. Hanna, 'Design aid', International Design, January 1986;
30. and R. Ghose, 'Design and development in South and Southeast Asia: an overview', in R. Ghose (ed. ), Design and Development in South and Southeast Asia, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1990.
31. Similar arguments have been recently raised again by Nigel Whiteley in his book, Design for Society, Reaktion Books, London, 1993.
32. Bonsiepe, op. cit. , 1990.
33. John Weiss, Industry in Developing Countries, Routledge, London, 1988.
34. C. I. Moon, 'The future of the newly industrialising countries: an "uncertain promise"?' in D. C. Pragetes & C. Sylvester (eds. ), Transformations in the Global Political Economy, Macmillan, London, 1990.
35. Er, op. cit. , 1994.
36. C. H. Kim, 'The role of industrial design in international competition: a case study of the South Korean electronics industry', Ph. D. thesis, Institute of Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, May 1989. See also Er, op. cit. , 1994. NICs, particularly the Asian ones, also have an unenviable reputation for imitating products at low prices.
37. See D. Johston, 'Design protection in practice', in M. Oakley (ed. ), Design Management: A Handbook of Issues and Methods, Blackwell, Oxford, 1990.
38. Kim, op. cit.
39. Ughanwa & Baker, op. cit.
40. Er, op. cit. , 1994, p-125. For example, in the interviews with designers from the Asian NICs, 'reducing product cost' and 'redesigning products for improvement' were ranked as the most important two functions of industrial design. 'Estimating and controlling costs' was also described as one of the necessary skills that industrial designers should possess.
41. S. Teitel, 'Technology creation in semi-industrial economies', Journal of Development Economics, vol. 16, 1984, pp. 39-61.
42. For a more detailed discussion of the role of exports in the development of design capabilities in NICs, see H. Alpay Er, 'Design by export: the role of exports in the development of new product design capabilities in the Turkish consumer electronics industry', in the Proceeding of International Product Design Symposium: Design, Industry and Turkey, Ankara, Middle East Technical University, 1994.
43. See also H. Alpay Er, 'The role of exports in the acquisition of industrial design capabilities in NICs', ICSIDNews, vol. 95, no 4, 1995, p. 9.
44. For example, C. Dahlman & L. Westphal, 'Technological effort in industrial development: an interpretative survey of recent research', in F. Stewart & J. James (eds. ), The Economics of New Technology in Developing Countries, Frances Pinter Ltd. , London, 1982.
45. World Bank, The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy, World Bank/Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993.
46. L. Westphal, L. Kim, & C. Dahlman, 'Reflections on the Republic of Korea's acquisition of technological capability', in N. Rosenberg & C. Frischtak (eds. ), International Technology Transfer: Concepts, Measures and Comparisons, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1985.
47. Er, op. cit. , 1994; 1995.
48. Papanek, op. cit. , 1972.
49. See, for a recent account of the state of industrial design in India, H. Aldersey-Williams, 'India: craft and commerce', International Design, August 1991.
50. There is also a chapter on India in Aldersey-William's book, World Design: Nationalism and Globalism in Design, Rizzoli International Publishers Inc. , New York, 1992.
51. See also, for an insider view, K. Mushi, 'Dynamics of design and technology: an Indian overview', in Ghose (ed. ), op. cit. , 1990
52. and Rajeshwari Ghose, 'Design, development, culture and cultural legacies in Asia', Design Issues, vol. 6, no. 1, 1989, pp. 31-48.
53. Ashoke Chatterjee, 'Design in India: an experience in education', in Ghose (ed. ), op. cit. , 1990.
54. Matthew Turner, 'Early modern design in Hong Kong', Design Issues, vol. 6, no. 1, 1989, pp. 79-92.
55. For example, Goldstar Electronics of Korea (LG Electronics) founded its Design Centre in the second half of the 1970s. Kim, op. cit. , p. 151.
56. See, for the use of design consultants from industrialized market economies by large NIC firms, Özlem Er, 'The use of external design expertise by newly industrialised countries witìi particular reference to the operations of British automotive design consultancies', Ph. D. thesis, Institute of Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, December 1995.
57. Michael Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Macmillan Ltd. , London, 1990.
58. For a detailed discussion of this argument in a specific context, see H. Alpay Er, 'The state of design: towards an assessment of the development of industrial design in Turkey', METU Journal of the Faculty Architecture, vol. 1, no. 1-2, 1995, pp. 31-51.