Design research in the periphery: A review of the foundations and development characteristics of industrial design research in Turkey

Abstract

The evolution of design research can be understood as a process conditioned by the increasing knowledge requirements of the new economy. Since design is increasingly recognized as a competitive factor of strategic nature, it is expected and natural that design research has found a fertile ground in the central countries of the global economy as they evolve into being knowledge economies for the last decades. Rather unexpectedly however, design research also exists in the periphery of the global economy where the design knowledge requirements are considered to be weak and unsophisticated. By looking specifically into the state of industrial design research in Turkey as a Newly Industrialized Country, the article provides insight into the differentiated reality of the development of design research in peripheral countries. The article reviews the history of industrial design research in Turkey and tries to reveal its problems and potentials in relation to national and international dynamics in a wider context.