The Culture of Academic Rigour: does design research really need it?
John Wood, Goldsmiths College


Historically, the culture of design education reflects an uneasy liaison between the mediaeval monastic ('Book') and the crafts guilds ('design studio') traditions. For this reason it has been difficult to integrate both modes of knowledge in design education. Common misunderstandings about 'scholastic rigour' are symptomatic of this confusion. 'Rigorous' writing is fundamentally rule-based and organisational, and can therefore be at odds with the situated, opportunistic judgements involved with much design practice. We should therefore re-design academic writing protocols for design education.

The paper was first published in The Design Journal, Vol. 3, Issue 1, pp. 44 to 57, published by Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, UK, ISSN 1460-6925, HYPERLINK www.ashgate.com