Design and National Identity

Description

This important study introduces the key theories of national identity, and relates them to the broad fields of product, graphic and fashion design. Javier Gimeno-Martinez approaches the inter-relationship between national identity and cultural production from two perspectives: the distinctive characteristics of a nation's output, and the consumption of design products within a country as a means of generating a national design landscape. Using case studies ranging from stamps in nineteenth century Russian-occupied Finland, to Coca-Cola as an ‘American’ drink in modern Trinidad and Tobago, he addresses concepts of essentialism, constructivism, geography and multiculturality, and considers the works of key theorists, including Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm and Doreen Massey. This illuminating book offers the first comprehensive account of how national identity and cultural policy have shaped design, while suggesting that traditional formations of the ‘national’ are increasingly unsustainable in an age of globalisation, migration and cultural diversity. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction National histories of design Thinking about nationalism National identity and design What is nationalism? What is national identity? Why is national identity constructed? How is national identity constructed? Global culture Regions and sub-nations Conclusion PART ONE Primordialism: Nations as Perennial Entities Chapter 1 A National Character Culture-based nationalism Design as an index of the nation Dreaming the primitive nation Primitivism in design theory Chapter 2 Rethinking National Romanticism Historicism, the vernacular and the nation Nation versus modernity in Russia and Central Europe Museums and the vernacularin Scandinavia Folk art and political propaganda in Japan The afterlife of National Romanticism Chapter 3 The Logic of National Design Recurrent essentialism Herder today Canons The Dutchness of Dutch Design National design canons Conclusion PART TWO Modernism: Top-down Approaches to National Identity Chapter 4 National Symbols and the State Modernity and the national Creating modern national symbols Verbalizing the nation Note Chapter 5 Government Branding Political devolution and the negotiation of new symbols Catalonia’s reinterpretation of the past Flanders’ problematic lion Regions as nations Notes Chapter 6 Design as a Matter of State The paradoxical nature of the state Articulating state, civic society and design: Foucault and Braudel Conclusion PART THREE Nationalism from Below: Bottom- up Approaches to National Identity Chapter 7 The Nation and the Familiar The nation as home The changing face of familiarity National capital Everyday negotiation of nationhood De/sedimenting Chapter 8 Trafficking the National Advertising the nation: who and how Indigenizing foreign products Contesting the nation Chapter 9 Is Multiculturalism the New Vernacular? Multiculturalism Redundant culture and state On chopsticks and forks Immigrant design Diaspora or immigration Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Index