Table Of ContentSwedish Design
CULTURES AND
TECHNOLOGIES
OF KNOWLEDGE
edited by dominic boyer
A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Swedish Design
An Ethnography
Keith M. Murphy
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2015 by Cornell University
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parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in
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Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2015 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2015
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Murphy, Keith M., author.
Swedish design : an ethnography / Keith M. Murphy.
pages cm. — (Expertise : cultures and technologies of knowledge)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-5329-8 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8014-7966-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Design—Anthropological aspects—Sweden. 2. Material culture—
Sweden—Philosophy. 3. Ethnology—Sweden. I. Title.
NK1461.A1M87 2015
306.4'709485—dc23 2014041686
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Disentangling Swedish Design 1
1. The Diagram of Swedish Design 30
2. Building the Beautiful Home 58
3. In the Design World 89
4. In the Studio 128
5. Displays of Force 172
Conclusion: Designing a Social Cosmology 206
Notes 219
References 225
Index 243
Acknowledgments
Without the backing of a vast conspiracy of supporters, this book would
not exist. I’d like to start by thanking Alessandro Duranti, Candy Good-
win, Chuck Goodwin, and Paul Kroskrity, who, when I came to them
and said “hand gestures plus furniture plus Sweden plus anthropology,”
decided not to lose their faith in me. A number of other mentors at UCLA
also helped shape the trajectory of this book, including Niko Besnier,
Linda Garro, John Heritage, Doug Hollan, Elinor Ochs, Mel Pollner, and
Manny Schegloff.
My colleagues, past and present, at the University of California, Irvine,
have pushed my thinking and writing in directions I’d have never discov-
ered on my own, and I’d especially like to thank Victoria Bernal, Tom
Boellstorff, Angela Garcia, Julia Lupton, Bill Maurer, Sanjoy Mazum-
dar, Michael Montoya, Valerie Olson, Kris Peterson, and Kaushik Sun-
der Rajan. George Marcus has productively encouraged me to expand my
views of both design and anthropology. All of my students at UCI—in
particular Julka Almquist, Lilly Irani, Janny Li, and Stevie Rea—have in
viii Acknowledgments
some way influenced this book. Iris Flores and Rachel Ulgado provided
invaluable bibliographic assistance. And thanks to the Department of
Anthropology staff, especially Norma Miranda, who takes care of all the
things that need taking care of.
Over the years I have benefited immensely from conversations with a
wide array of interlocutors whose voices echo throughout these pages. I
was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a brilliant and generous group
of graduate students at UCLA, including Steven Black, Anjali Brown-
ing, Mara Buchbinder, Cre Engelke, Inmaculada Garcia-Sánchez, Hanna
Garth, Rachel George, Jeff Good, Anthony Graesch, Mi Kyung Kim,
Heather Loyd, Angela Nonaka, Daisy Rooks, Merav Shohet, Jesse Sum-
mers, and Anja Vogel. I’d especially like to acknowledge the perseverance
and dedication of Kevin Groark, Justin Richland, Kristen Schilt, and Jason
Throop (the first person to hear of my plan to work in Sweden), all of
whom have provided critical input at every stage of this project. For their
own various bits of wisdom, insight, and assistance prior to and during
the writing of the book, I’d like to thank Shoham Arad, Don Brenneis,
Mary Bucholtz, Graham Jones, Susan Gal, Wendy Gunn, Cori Hayden,
Jamer Hunt, Don Kulick, Lotta Björklund Larsen, Michael Lempert, Per
Linell, Chris McCray, Lorenza Mondada, Howard Morphy, Smoki Mu-
saraj, Constantine Nakassis, Todd Nicewonger, Mihir Pandya, Marina
Peterson, Michael Silverstein, Ivan Small, Roger Säljö, and Marketa Vele-
hradska. Thanks also to my friends Paul Connor, Jennifer Tsang, Kerry
Tulson, Ann Walters, and Anna Krakus, who is not just a friend, but also
the central pillar supporting everything in this book.
The list of people who have selflessly helped me in Sweden is long.
I’d like to thank the office of the Swedish Fulbright Commission, Jean-
nette Lindström, Monica Dahlen, Nina Forsblad, and Antonietta Op-
penheimer for easing my transition into the Stockholm way of living.
Karin Junefelt, my “Swedish mom,” demonstrated more kindness and
generosity than I thought any normal human being was capable of. At
Stockholm University, the Social Anthropology Department welcomed
me with open arms, and I’d especially like to thank Ulf Hannerz, Chris-
tina Garsten, Shahram Khosravi, Johan Lindquist, Karin Norman, and
Helena Wulff, as well as Laila Abdallah, Victor Alneng, Raoul Galli, and
Johanna Gullberg. And for going above and beyond, Eva Lundgren and
Renita Thedvall are true saints. I would also like to thank Mathias Broth,
Acknowledgments ix
Lucas Gottzén, Jonas Ivarsson, Oskar Lindwall, and Gustav Lymer,
my staunchest intellectual supporters and interlocutors in Sweden. And
without my friends Cameron Britt, Garrett Bucks, Jorg De Vries, The-
resa Harmanen, Fredrik Johansson-Oviedo, Kjersti Knox, Cora Lacatus,
Rebecca Lundberg, and Mia Marchner, fieldwork in Stockholm would
surely have been a drag.
Many others in Sweden have contributed to the development of this
project, but I’d like to thank in particular Jan Carl Adelswärd, Viveka
Adelswärd, Karin Aronsson, Stella D'Ailly, Ronald Jones, Bronek K rakus,
Urszula Krakus, Karl Lallerstedt, Lars Lallerstedt, Sara Lönnroth, Jonas
Nobel, Dominic Power, Cilla Robach, Helena Scragg, Yngve Sundblad,
Anna-Marie Svensson, Niklas Wolkert, Måns Wrange, and Christina
Zetterlund.
I must profusely thank all of the folks who graciously allowed me a
glimpse of their own small corners of the Swedish design world, especially
the designers who opened their doors to me. Most will remain unnamed,
but you know who you are. However there is an obvious exception in
Peter, Matti, and Fredrik, whose work—in every sense of the term—has
fundamentally made this book possible. Tack så jätte mycket.
Various pieces of this project were presented at a number of different
conferences, colloquia, and workshops, and participants in those events
have been instrumental in giving form to my otherwise inchoate ideas.
These include members of the Department of Anthropology at the Uni-
versity of California, Santa Cruz; the Department of Communication and
Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University; the Departments of Anthro-
pology and Sociology at the University of Chicago; the Social Anthropol-
ogy Department at Stockholm University; Södertörn University College
in Södertörn, Sweden; the Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning,
Interaction, and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society
(LinCS) at the University of Gothenburg; the American Anthropologi-
cal Association; the International Conference on Conversation Analysis in
Mannheim, Germany; and the Swedish Women’s Education Association
in San Francisco.
At Cornell University Press my deepest thanks go to series editor Dom-
inic Boyer, for his unwavering advocacy; Peter Potter, for his careful guid-
ance; Sara Ferguson, for her patience and efficiency; Marian Rogers, for
her eagle eyes and cleverness; and Lisa DeBoer for compiling the index.
