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Designing for Meaning: The Designer’s Ethical Responsibility

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Book cover Ethics, Design and Planning of the Built Environment

Part of the book series: Urban and Landscape Perspectives ((URBANLAND,volume 12))

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Abstract

Our contemporary “first” world societies seem to be drifting in a state of cultural crisis. This has been notable for the past several decades. As planning theorist John Friedmann (1993, p. 482) put it sometime ago:

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Stanley M. Stein & Thomas L. Harper

Authors
  1. Stanley M. Stein
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  2. Thomas L. Harper
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas L. Harper .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre, Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, Wageningen, 6708 PB, Netherlands

    Claudia Basta

  2. , Architecture and Urban Studies, Milan Politecnico, Via Bonardi 3, Milan, 20133, Italy

    Stefano Moroni

Additional information

Notes

1.Some writers, for example, Taylor (1991), consider this second change to be the outworking of modernism.

2.Pragmatism shows that distinctions such as reality/appearance, truth/opinion, objectivity/subjectivity, and fact/value can still be used, when seen as end points of continua, rather than absolute dichotomies

3.Parts of this section (and the next two sections) are based on Badke and Walker (2007). Walker was a colleague in the Faculty of Environmental Design in Calgary for many years and taught design theory with Stein.

4.On the Enlightenment influence, see Friedmann (1987). He views the dominance of “market rationality” as another key aspect.

5.Parts of this section (and the next two sections) are based on Harper and Stein (2006, c.2).

6.Steps of the scientific method: observation of regularities, generalization, theorizing, hypothesis-testing, establishing scientific laws, and uniting theories under general theories. Kuhn (1970) demonstrated that the actual process was more complex than the simple textbook representation.

7.For example, Marxism claims that social structures and moral beliefs are determined solely by economic forces. Reflecting the influence of modernism, the investigation of human and social phenomena eventually came to be known as “social science.” In the social sciences, approaches which seek to develop metanarratives are sometimes called “structuralist.”

8.Creatures fulfilling these criteria do not necessarily have to be Homo sapiens.

9.A person’s initial formulation of a good and meaningful life is largely socially determined. We can concede such communitarian claims, without in any way weakening the moral and political conception of the “autonomous person.” But it doesn’t follow from any social origin of our goals that we should switch from the individual to the community as the proper object of moral concern.

10.This is the core belief of liberalism, used in a broad sense which encompasses most of the political spectrum in many societies with Anglo-European roots. Liberalism and its notion of the individual have been widely criticized. For an extended explication and defense of liberal ideals, see Rawls (1993; 2001).

11.This same point can be used to demonstrate why a work of art can have intrinsic value.

12.We have not included a discussion of the responsibilities of product/industrial designers because it was beyond the scope of this book. For an excellent treatment of this topic, see Walker (2011) or Badke and Walker (2007).

13.The federal Wartime Housing Corporation built housing units in areas with shortages due to war efforts. Over 45,000 units were constructed from 1941 to 1949. They were noted for the homogeneity of their original appearance (CMHC, n.d.).

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Stein, S.M., Harper, T.L. (2013). Designing for Meaning: The Designer’s Ethical Responsibility. In: Basta, C., Moroni, S. (eds) Ethics, Design and Planning of the Built Environment. Urban and Landscape Perspectives, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5246-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5246-7_10

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