Abstract

PAIVA, Verónica  and  GARCIA DE LA CARCOVA, Alejo. Wright Mills y su crítica al diseño de segunda posguerra. Los aportes de la sociología al mundo del diseño. Cuad. Cent. Estud. Diseñ. Comun., Ensayos [online]. 2019, n.71, pp.102-112. ISSN 1853-3523.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18682/cdc.vi71.1070.

The article elaborates on two texts written by sociologist C. Wright Mills where he criticizes the position taken by industrial designers since the 1929 crisis and especially since the Second World War. The author complains that the designer have left their role as part of the cultural apparatus to be a member of the commercial apparatus, in providing their knowledge of art and design to big industry. Since the ’29 crisis of overproduction invigorated capitalism through massive consumption and planned obsolescence of objects for reasons of prestige or fashion. In this task the designer was indispensable to generate new aesthetic that promote change in fashion or by linking objects to socioeconomic status gear.

For that reason Wright Mills invites designers, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, to rethink their social responsibilities and promote policies that contribute to human welfare.

Keywords : Design; Aesthetics; Sociological Theory; Mass Consumption; Planned Obsolescence.

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