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"Toward an Anthropology of the Will" is the first book that
systematically explores volition from an ethnographically informed
anthropological point of view. While philosophers have for
centuries puzzled over the degree to which individuals are "free"
to choose how to act in the world, anthropologists have either
assumed that the will is a stable, constant fact of the human
condition or simply ignored it. Although they are usually quite
comfortable discussing the relationship between culture and
cognition or culture and emotion, anthropologists have not yet
focused on how culture and volition are interconnected.
The contributors to this book draw upon their unique insights and
research experience to address fundamental questions, including:
What forms does the will take in culture? How is willing
experienced? How does it relate to emotion and cognition? What does
imagination have to do with willing? What is the connection between
morality, virtue, and willing? Exploring such questions, the book
moves beyond old debates about "freedom" and "determinacy" to
demonstrate how a richly nuanced anthropological approach to the
cultural experience of willing can help shape theories of social
action in the human sciences.
The chapters in this captivating volume demonstrate the importance
and power of design and the ubiquitous and forceful effects it has
on human life within the study of anthropology. The scholars
explore the interactions between anthropology and design through a
cross-disciplinary approach, and while their approaches vary in how
they specifically consider design, they are all centered around the
design-and-anthropology relationship. The chapters look at
anthropology for design, in which anthropological methods and
concepts are mobilized in the design process; anthropology of
design, in which design is positioned as an object of ethnographic
inquiry and critique; and design for anthropology, in which
anthropologists borrow concepts and practices from design to
enhance traditional ethnographic forms. Collectively, the chapters
argue that bringing design and anthropology together can transform
both fields in more than one way and that to tease out the
implications of using design to reimagine ethnography--and of using
ethnography to reimagine design--we need to consider the historical
specificity of their entanglements.
Swedish designers are noted for producing distinctive and elegant
forms; their furniture and household goods have an especially loyal
following around the world. Design in Sweden has more than just an
aesthetic component, however. Since at least the late nineteenth
century, Swedish politicians and social planners have viewed design
as a means for advocating and enacting social change and pushing
for a more egalitarian social organization. In this book, Keith M.
Murphy examines the special relationship between politics and
design in Sweden, revealing in particular the cultural meanings
this relationship holds for Swedish society. Over the course of
fourteen months of research in Stockholm and at other sites, Murphy
conducted in-depth interviews with various players involved in the
Swedish design industry-designers, design instructors, government
officials, artists, and curators-and observed several different
design collectives in action. He found that for Swedes design is
never socially or politically neutral. Even for common objects like
furniture and other household goods, design can be labeled
"responsible," "democratic," or "ethical"- descriptors that all
neatly resonate with the traditional moral tones of Swedish social
democracy. Murphy also considers the example of Ikea and its power
to politicize perceptions of the everyday world. More broadly, his
book serves as a model for an anthropological approach to the study
of design practice, one that accounts for the various ways in which
order is purposefully and meaningfully imposed by designers on the
domains of human life, and the consequences those impositions have
on the social worlds in which they are embedded.
Swedish designers are noted for producing distinctive and elegant
forms; their furniture and household goods have an especially loyal
following around the world. Design in Sweden has more than just an
aesthetic component, however. Since at least the late nineteenth
century, Swedish politicians and social planners have viewed design
as a means for advocating and enacting social change and pushing
for a more egalitarian social organization. In this book, Keith M.
Murphy examines the special relationship between politics and
design in Sweden, revealing in particular the cultural meanings
this relationship holds for Swedish society. Over the course of
fourteen months of research in Stockholm and at other sites, Murphy
conducted in-depth interviews with various players involved in the
Swedish design industry-designers, design instructors, government
officials, artists, and curators-and observed several different
design collectives in action. He found that for Swedes design is
never socially or politically neutral. Even for common objects like
furniture and other household goods, design can be labeled
"responsible," "democratic," or "ethical"- descriptors that all
neatly resonate with the traditional moral tones of Swedish social
democracy. Murphy also considers the example of Ikea and its power
to politicize perceptions of the everyday world. More broadly, his
book serves as a model for an anthropological approach to the study
of design practice, one that accounts for the various ways in which
order is purposefully and meaningfully imposed by designers on the
domains of human life, and the consequences those impositions have
on the social worlds in which they are embedded.
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