Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980: Revolt and Resilience

Kjetil Fallan · Christina Zetterlund · Anders V. Munch

Aug 2022 · Taylor & Francis

About this ebook

Covering the 1960s and 1970s, this volume explores new ways of investigating, comparing and interpreting the different domains of design culture across the Nordic countries.

Challenging the traditional narrative, this volume argues that the roots of the most prominent features of Nordic design’s contemporary significance are not to be found amongst the objects for the home collectively branded as ‘Scandinavian Design’ to great acclaim in the 1950s, but in the discourses, institutions and practices formed in the aftermath of that oft-told success story, during the turbulent period between 1960 and 1980. This is achieved by employing multidisciplinary approaches to connect the domains of industrial production, marketing, consumption, public institutions, design educations, trade journals as well as public debates and civic initiatives forming a design culture. This book makes a significant contribution to current, international agendas of historiographical critique focusing on transnational relations and the deconstruction of national design histories.

This book will be of interest to scholars in design, design history and Scandinavian studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

About the author

Kjetil Fallan is Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo.

Christina Zetterlund is Associate Professor of Design at Linneaus University, Växjö and curator for the project (Re-)learning the Archive at The Design Archive in Pukeberg.

Anders V. Munch is Professor of Design Culture at the University of Southern Denmark.