The Design of Everyday Life

How do common household items such as basic plastic house wares or high-tech digital cameras transform our daily lives? The Design of Everyday Life considers this question in detail, from the design of products through to their use in the home. Drawing on interviews with consumers themselves, the authors look at how everyday objects, ranging from screwdrivers to photo management software, are used on a practical level. Closely investigating the design, production and use of mass-market goods, the authors offer new interpretations of how consumers' needs are met and manufactured. They examine the dynamic interaction of products with everyday practices. The Design of Everyday Life presents a pathbreaking analysis of the sociology of objects, illuminating the connections between design and consumption.

Elizabeth Shove is Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University.
Matthew Watson is Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at Durham University. Jack Ingram is Professor of Product Design at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, UCE. Martin Hand is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queen's University in Canada.

List of Figures	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
The Design of Everyday Life	p. 1
Thinking About Things	p. 3
Gaps, Cracks and Questions	p. 10
The Stuff of Social Practice	p. 12
The Structure of the Book	p. 15
Having and Doing: The Case of the 'Restless Kitchen'	p. 21
Explaining Kitchen Renewal	p. 23
Modes of Restlessness	p. 26
Missing Materials	p. 26
Having and Doing in Balance	p. 29
Unrealized Practices	p. 31
The Dynamics of Having and Doing	p. 34
Consumption and Competence: DIY Projects	p. 41
Introducing DIY	p. 45
Accounting for DIY	p. 46
Doing DIY	p. 49
Consuming Hardware	p. 50
Distributed Competence	p. 54
Emerging Projects	p. 60
Product, Project and Practice	p. 64
Reproducing Digital Photography	p. 69
Introducing Photographic Practice	p. 71
Going Digital	p. 76
Doing Digital Photography	p. 79
Taking Digital Pictures	p. 80
Manipulating Digital Pictures	p. 82
Organizing, Sharing and Viewing Digital Images	p. 83
Innovations in Photographic Practice	p. 86
The Materials of Material Culture: Plastic	p. 93
Material Narratives	p. 95
The Promise Requirement Cycles of Material Culture	p. 99
Properties and Performances	p. 101
Material-object Relations	p. 104
The Chromatic Revolution	p. 107
Design and Image	p. 109
The Mass of Production and Consumption	p. 112
The Social Life of Materials	p. 114
Theories and Practices of Product Design	p. 117
Positioning Design	p. 120
Product-centred Design	p. 125
User-centred Design	p. 129
Practice-oriented Design	p. 134
Redesigning Design?	p. 135
Products, Processes and Practices	p. 139
Connecting Conclusions	p. 141
Implications and Directions	p. 148
Notes	p. 153
Bibliography	p. 157
Index	p. 171
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The Design of Everyday Life

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials