New Pragmatism and the Vocabulary and Metaphors of Scholarly Design Research

Abstract

The pragmatism of Dewey, James, and Pierce is familiar vocabu lary to the philosophical, educational, social, and political landscape of North America. In its treatment of truth, action, values, and the theory-practice divide, it is particularly relevant to a range of fields including design. This pragmatist legacy is developed in Donald Sch?n's work, and Rittel's and Weber's metaphor of the wicked problems of planning and design?to suggest a distinctive disciplin ary vocabulary of design research and practice. Existing treatments of the relations between pragmatism and design disciplines such as urban and environmental planning, architecture, and interaction design highlight this expanded version. However, such treatments have not addressed how the neo-pragmatist account developed by Richard Rorty might enlarge design research. Combining particular readings of Dewey, James, and others with Wittgenstein, Foucault, and Derrida; Rorty offers an account which reinforces conventional pragmatist theses, but then looks beyond them in an environment where science and the humanities have equal claims to truth, mean ing, and representation. Reviewing existing treatments of these themes, including those in this journal, I trace connections between pragmatism and Horst's and Rittel's formulation of wicked prob lems and Sch?n's reflective practitioner. I examine the current use of Deweyan and new pragmatism in design fields, and suggest how Rorty's claims about redescription and vocabularies have some unex plored consequences for design research and scholarship. I close with some thoughts on how the expanded pragmatist approach might support the kind of epistemological and methodological perspective to benefit design scholarship.