“Design Diversity” discusses the role of the design discipline in co-constructing contemporary images of ageing and questions whether an individual ‘style’ is interrupted by stigmatizing products and therefore supports a process of being ‘aged by culture’.

Products can be seen as active agents, mediating relationships between people. Things are embedded in social structures and work as instruments for meaning transfer, enacted in kinship, gift cultures, exchange rituals, divestment rituals as shown across disciplines.

Consequently an exploration of the things and practices that accompany life will be essential for an understanding of what getting older means for the individual and thus for the discipline of design, which after all aims to offer people with intuitive and meaningful products, services and systems.

Language: English / German