Enfolding Design and STS
Events, Aesthetics and Topological Encounters
Will be published approx. on 3. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
216 pages
978-1-350-05682-4 (ISBN)
Description
This volume presents an empirically rich and theoretically grounded exploration of the dynamic and emergent interplay between Design and Science and Technology Studies (STS).
Tracing the interwoven histories of both fields, Alex Wilkie and Mike Michael explore their evolving interrelations. Whether as a substantive topic, a source of methodological innovation, or a novel model of engagement with users and publics, Design has come to influence how research is conducted in STS. Conversely, STS now informs ongoing developments in Design's research practices, providing a rich source of concepts, an analytically inspiring resource, and a means to empirical complexification.
Cutting across an array of conceptual, methodological and substantive registers, Enfolding Design and STS develops a new treatment of recent interdisciplinary engagements where knowledge production, interventionist methods and practices of making are brought together, re-thought and transformed at both theoretical and empirical levels. Along the way, the authors draw on a diverse set of case studies including examples of environmental, biomedical, computational and domestic processes, and a variety of theoretical framings such as post-Actor-Network Theory, assemblage theory, Whiteheadian process philosophy, and ontological aesthetics. Building on these discussions, this book offers a fresh topological perspective that, tentatively and heuristically, provides a conceptual vocabulary and a methodological toolkit for navigating the unfolding interdisciplinary mutualities of STS and Design
Tracing the interwoven histories of both fields, Alex Wilkie and Mike Michael explore their evolving interrelations. Whether as a substantive topic, a source of methodological innovation, or a novel model of engagement with users and publics, Design has come to influence how research is conducted in STS. Conversely, STS now informs ongoing developments in Design's research practices, providing a rich source of concepts, an analytically inspiring resource, and a means to empirical complexification.
Cutting across an array of conceptual, methodological and substantive registers, Enfolding Design and STS develops a new treatment of recent interdisciplinary engagements where knowledge production, interventionist methods and practices of making are brought together, re-thought and transformed at both theoretical and empirical levels. Along the way, the authors draw on a diverse set of case studies including examples of environmental, biomedical, computational and domestic processes, and a variety of theoretical framings such as post-Actor-Network Theory, assemblage theory, Whiteheadian process philosophy, and ontological aesthetics. Building on these discussions, this book offers a fresh topological perspective that, tentatively and heuristically, provides a conceptual vocabulary and a methodological toolkit for navigating the unfolding interdisciplinary mutualities of STS and Design
Reviews / Votes
The fields of Design and Science and Technology Studies (STS) have informed and inspired one another for decades, with scholars frequently moving between them. Although substantial scholarship in Design draws on STS, and vice versa, there is comparatively little work that critically examines the interplay between these fields in depth. Enfolding Design & STS does precisely this, and is a significant and timely contribution to both disciplines. Wilkie and Michael are uniquely positioned to provide this analysis and insight, given their extensive experience working across and between Design and STS. This book will serve as a valuable resource for scholars and students, offering a framework for collaboration and shaping future research trajectories. * Carl DiSalvo, Associate Professor in the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA * This book is not only a map of Design and STS-it's an invitation to navigate their tangled, shifting, and surprisingly generative terrain. Design and STS don't merely intersect-they shape each other in ways that challenge disciplinary boundaries, foreground aesthetic inquiry, and invite new modes of making and knowing. A vital contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship. * Hannah Star Rogers, author of 'Art, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge' (2022) * Responding to the growing realisation of design as a social practice, this book is an insightful study of the intersections and synergies between Design and Science and Technologies Studies (STS) and the various epistemic dialogues and 'matters of concern' that emerge in their versatile webs of practice. Meticulous, filled with insightful examples and analytically refreshing, it is a must-read for every student, academic and practitioner interested in the production of design knowledge and the social and political nature of the outcomes of design. * Albena Yaneva, Professor in the Department of Architecture and Design, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
19 bw illus.
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-05682-4 (9781350056824)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
approx. 08/2026
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€27.49
Available for download
E-Book
approx. 08/2026
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€27.49
Available for download
Persons
Alex Wilkie is Professor in the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
Mike Michael is Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK.
Mike Michael is Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK.
Content
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Tracing a Path (or Two or...)
1. Design as an STS 'object-of-study'
2. Design as a Methodological Resource for STS
3. Including Nonhumans in Design: STS as Inspiration and Critical Resource
4. From Interdisciplinary Research to the Aesthetics of Research
5. A Case Study of Design-and-STS practice: Towards an Idiot Energy Meter
Conclusion... Continuing
Notes
References
Index
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Tracing a Path (or Two or...)
1. Design as an STS 'object-of-study'
2. Design as a Methodological Resource for STS
3. Including Nonhumans in Design: STS as Inspiration and Critical Resource
4. From Interdisciplinary Research to the Aesthetics of Research
5. A Case Study of Design-and-STS practice: Towards an Idiot Energy Meter
Conclusion... Continuing
Notes
References
Index