Seven-year-old Karl Gustav is sent away to live with his grandma following the death of his big brother, Alexander. No one understands how Alexander, an excellent swimmer, washed up on a North Sea beach near the harbor of Hirtshals in Denmark. Karl Gustav is left bewildered and at a loss. While everyone around him shies away from talking about the tragedy, he becomes increasingly concerned about death-not just of his big brother, but death in general. Like Chinese boxes opening one into another, Karl Gustav reveals all he knows about the tragedy and all he wishes he did not know, how his grandmother's God fits into it-and how he does. But will he ever open his mouth and speak up?

Design culture foregrounds the relationships between the domains of design practice, design production and everyday life. Unlike design history and design studies, it is primarily concerned with contemporary design objects and the networks between the multiple actors engaged in their shaping, functioning and reproduction. It acknowledges the rise of design as both a key component and a key challenge of the modern world. Featuring an impressive range of international case studies, Design Culture interrogates what this emergent discipline is, its methodologies, its scope and its relationships with other fields of study. The volume's interdisciplinary approach brings fresh thinking to this fast-evolving field of study.

Design culture foregrounds the relationships between the domains of design practice, design production and everyday life. Its focus is on contemporary designed objects and the networks between the multiple actors engaged in their shaping, functioning and reproduction. It acknowledges the rise of design and the role of the designer as key components and key challenges of the modern world. Featuring an impressive range of international case studies, ranging from examples of everyday design such as IKEA furniture and amateur graphic design, to the role of the design professional and the functioning of design within organisations, Design Culture interrogates what this emergent discipline is, its methodologies, its scope and its relationships with other fields of study. The volume's interdisciplinary approach brings fresh thinking to this fast-evolving field of study.