Design Dispersed: Design History, Design Practice and Anthropology

Abstract

This special issue is part of a rising tide of literature dedicated to design in the disci-pline of anthropology. In this publication, we respond supportively to Lucy Suchman’s call that ‘[. . .] we need less a reinvented anthropology as (or for) design than a critical anthropology of design’.1 Arriving at this academic moment entails at least two schol-arly trajectories that have been hitherto distinct, concerning how anthropology has engaged with design history on the one hand, and with design practice on the other