The Design Culture Reader (Highmore, B.; 2009) [Book Review]

Highmore, who teaches Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, is the editor of an eclectic collection of 32 entries in a book that he hopes will find a home not only in college design departments but also in the humanities and the social sciences. His preface and introduction anticipate critics like me-he tells us that design studies must not be "reducible to products and practices of people who call themselves designers." What does Highmore mean by design and how does it differ from material culture? Avoiding a definition, he asserts that "history, from a materialist perspective, is the effects of design... on the environment." There is enough valuable material in some of the essays to make the text worthwhile. But be assured this wouldn't be the only book the students would need.