earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to examine socio-cultural and political interventions in meaning-making by the design profession by investigating members of that profession as an audience in a design museum. Professional meaning-making in this study is addressed from the viewpoint of theoretical understandings of the way in which the design profession makes meaning and gains knowledge. In particular, the study examines the interventions embedded in professional meaning-making by employing three of Bourdieu's concepts, namely, 'field', 'habitus', and 'practice'. In doing so, it suggests why the world of design and relevant institutions including design museums are so closed and private, and showed some ways in which meanings differ according to social position, emphasizing the notion of social class divisions in structuring meanings. However, this power-theoretical approach to meaning-making is criticized for seeing people as passive recipients of knowledge and as differentiated agendas rather than active producers. The latter part of this article will, therefore, investigate the limitations of theories of practice, which provide links between the field and the formation of meaning-making through the field.