A cultural geometry: Designing political things in Sweden

Abstract

In Sweden, a long‐standing and pervasive discourse delineates the significance of design—especially “Swedish design”—within a distinctly political framework. Just as the social democratic welfare state is in large part organized to “care” for its citizens, design in Sweden is supposed to “care” for the users of everyday goods. I explore this claim in several sociocultural domains in which different aspects of Swedish design are reproduced. I also present an argument for working with design and designing as ethnographic objects of inquiry.

Moulding Knowledge into a Legal Complex: Para-ethnography at the Swedish Tax Agency

“…Like Karen Boll in her study of Danish tax compliance (2013), I am also intent on avoiding the 'perspectivist' assemblage of a piecemeal ethnography ready to be seen, collected, transcribed, analysed, and written about. In this vein, I recognize the things used to perform these practices (Callon, Millo, and Muniesa 2007), as well as the places where they are performed (Murphy 2013;Zaloom 2006), in order to understand how knowledge is formed. Although these approaches make all knowledge claims have equal standing (cf.…”

“…This is an office milieu that does not stand out and clearly has connotations with historical meanings of work in Sweden. The premise of the Tax Agency is thus an example of how design impacts social interaction (Murphy 2013). First of all, the buildings connect to work and industry in a broad sense -through both its location and construction in red brick.…”

“…First of all, the buildings connect to work and industry in a broad sense -through both its location and construction in red brick. Secondly, it is by no means an example of 'aesthetic' Swedish design (Murphy 2013), but a display of a typical worn-in, contemporary everyday Swedish office, and thus offers a milieu to which most Swedish office workers are accustomed. These points added together can make the building an illustration of the Agency's vision of Sweden as 'a society where everybody wants to do the right thing' or, perhaps more specifically, 'do one's fair share'.…”

Boundary Objects Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of World Making in Avant-Garde Fashion Design and Animal Husbandry

“…Ingold, 2013). For instance, recent work examining the expert practices of makers (e.g., artisans, designers, and artists) has drawn critical attention to how the embodied practices of cultural producers are tied to wider sociological questions, such as the interrelationship between politics and design (Murphy, 2013;Redfield, 2012), the social work of prototypes (Jiménez, 2013;Were, 2010), and shifting notions of expertise (Makovicky, 2010;Paxson, 2008). There has also been a concentrated effort to draw from the fields of art and design to develop new conceptual frameworks for teaching anthropological methods and practices (Marcus, 2014;Murphy & Marcus, 2013;Rabinow & Marcus, 2008).…”

The Urban Oak Savanna: Evaluating Co-Design and Collaborative Land Management in Downtown Portland, Oregon

“…It is not right to think of her as a designed thing. She carries values and knowledge and stories, not imposed by the cultural geometry of design (Murphy 2013), but inherited by a life of hardship, fighting off development and a desire to be reunited with the heart of her city-the love of the people. I write because I am indebted.…”