Lataa ilmaiseksi

D W E L L I N G W I T H D E S I G N
Modest
pleasures
260
My second research question was about the motivation for appropriation.
Given that it takes time and money to appropriate design, why do
people bother doing it? The question is interesting, especially since the interviewed
households probably associated themselves, like most Finns do, with
the middle class (Liikkanen 2009), a social class that is seen in 1960s Paris
(Bourdieu 1979) and in recent England (Fox 2004) to be the most status-seeking
and competitive social class between a comparatively indifferent aristocracy
and working class. Fox describes how her middle class interviewees are anxiously
cleaning furniture while neither the working class interviewees nor the
aristocrats mind that the sofas are covered with dog hair (ibid. 167). At one
point, Bourdieu describes the life of the middle class as “an anxious quest for
authorities and models of conduct” (Bourdieu 1979 331).
On the other hand, according to Mika Pantzar, the principal motivations
for adopting particular products are passion, fashion and rational calculation,
which all gradually evolve to become accepted social needs once the item has
been domesticated to the culture (Pantzar 2003). The appropriation of design
certainly is an “accepted social need” in Finland. Indeed, perhaps not appropriating
design is seen as something that requires explanation (I am reminded of
those households that did not want to be interviewed). The anxious “keeping
up with Joneses” argument holds true, but only in the sense that people have
what can be called “appropriation styles” guiding the appropriation of design,
as discussed in Chapter 3. I did not get the impression that the households felt
that they needed to achieve specific results. In fact, to put it succinctly, it seems
that the households in my sample are appropriating design because it is fun to
appropriate design and dwell with it, but also because it really does not matter
that much.
Finding pleasure in appropriation and in design can be seen to resemble the
pleasures people draw from playing games, doing puzzles and from works of