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Design Thinking and the New Spirit of Capitalism

Sociological Reflections on Innovation Culture

Authors:

  • Applies sociological rigor to a work methodology common in entrepreneurial “innovation culture”

  • Bridges ethnography, empirical data, practice, and theory to provide critical insight into Design Thinking

  • Valuable not only academics in ethnography, sociology, STS, and beyond, but also for practitioners of Design Thinking (consultants, creative, designers, and coaches)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
  2. Introduction

    • Tim Seitz
    Pages 1-15
  3. The Temporality of Design Thinking

    • Tim Seitz
    Pages 17-44
  4. The Materiality of Design Thinking

    • Tim Seitz
    Pages 45-81
  5. Conclusion

    • Tim Seitz
    Pages 99-103
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 105-107

About this book

An ethnographic study on Design Thinking, this book offers profound insights into the popular innovation method, centrally exploring how design thinking’s practice relates to the vast promises surrounding it. Through a close study of a Berlin-based innovation agency, Tim Seitz finds both mundane knowledge practices and promises of transformation. He unpacks the relationships between these discourses and practices and undertakes an exploratory movement that leads him from practice theory to pragmatism. In the course of this movement, Seitz makes design thinking understandable as a phenomenon of what Boltanski and Chiapello described as the “new spirit of capitalism”—that is, an ideological structure that incorporates criticism and therefore strengthens capitalism.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Tim Seitz

About the author

Tim Seitz is a doctoral researcher in the  DFG research training group “Innovation Society Today” at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. His research interests include sociological theory, science and technology studies and ethnographic methods.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access