Abstract
It is well established in literature of domestication studies that homes evolve differently depending on who lives in them and how people negotiate domestic order. Respectively, it is emphasised that social processes play crucial role in domestication of products. This article describes social processes interpreted from data collected in Helsinki area, Finland. The data consists of biographies and photographs of items that interviewees presented as ‘designed functional products’. Emphasis on social processes in domestication studies can be seen as an argument against studies that see consumers as mere passive adapters. The character of consumer might be more versatile. In this article it is proposed that we need to recognise not just active negotiations, but also see passive adoption and indifference as social processes, affecting designed consumer product’s domestication into household.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2005.058
Citation
Grönman, H.(2005) Social process and product’s domestication, in Binder, T., Redström, J. (eds.), Nordes 2005: In the making, 29-31 May, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2005.058
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Social process and product’s domestication
It is well established in literature of domestication studies that homes evolve differently depending on who lives in them and how people negotiate domestic order. Respectively, it is emphasised that social processes play crucial role in domestication of products. This article describes social processes interpreted from data collected in Helsinki area, Finland. The data consists of biographies and photographs of items that interviewees presented as ‘designed functional products’. Emphasis on social processes in domestication studies can be seen as an argument against studies that see consumers as mere passive adapters. The character of consumer might be more versatile. In this article it is proposed that we need to recognise not just active negotiations, but also see passive adoption and indifference as social processes, affecting designed consumer product’s domestication into household.