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Designing Domesticity asks: what does advice literature since 1970 reveal about ideals of domesticity? The project contributes to knowledge and understanding of domesticity 1945-present by analysing domestic advice literature as part of a broader category of instructional consumer discourses. Designing Domesticity subjects domestic advice literature and related domestic and consumer discourses to close textual and visual analysis. It is argued that instructional discourse has either been regarded as unreliable or used as an accurate historical record, when analysis of domestic advice as a genre of constructed ideals is appropriate and useful.
The first journal article (2001) considers etiquette literature for what it tells us of the conceivable reception and use of designed goods in the home in interwar and postwar Britain. It was and remains both highly original and related to current academic interest in domesticity, mediatisation, consumption and everyday life. The article has been influential, as indicated by invitations to speak at the University of Brighton University College Falmouth and by citations including: Hans Christian Jensen, "Moderne materielle kulturstudier i design – Angloamerikansk designhistoriografi 1975-2000", ("Modern Material Culture Studies in Design: Anglo-American Design History 1975-2000"), Working Paper no. 22, Odense, Denmark: Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Southern Denmark, 2001, p. 34, n. 47. Also available on-line at http://www.humaniora.sdu.dk/kultur/arb_pap/Modernedesign22.pdf; Saulo B Cwerner and Alan Metcalfe, 'Storage and Clutter: Discourses and Practices of Order in the Domestic World', Anxious Homes, ed. Lesley Whitworth, a special issue of The Journal of Design History, vol. 16, no. 3 (2003), pp. 229-239, p. 238, n. 17 and Lesley Whitworth, 'Introduction', Anxious Homes, ed. Lesley Whitworth, a special issue of The Journal of Design History, vol. 16, no. 3 (2003), pp. 199-200, p. 200, n. 7.
The second article (2003) charts a research context and methodology for the value of domestic advice literature to the study of the history of design, and thus forms a methodological contribution to the field. It appears in a special issue edited by the lead researcher in the refereed Journal of Design History with contributions by Professor Penny Sparke (Kingston University), Dr. Judith Attfield (Southampton University), Dr. Rachel Rich (University of Essex), Frances Collard (Victoria & Albert Museum) and Emma Ferry (Kingston). The article builds in part on questions raised in a review which challenged the study of advice literature from a single-nation perspective, arguing instead for a transatlantic dialogue (From Catherine Beecher to Martha Stewart: a Cultural History of Domestic Advice, Sarah A. Leavitt, Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2002, reviewed in The Journal of Transatlantic Studies, vol. 2, no. 1 (2003), pp. 115-117) and presentations at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; UMIST, Manchester; Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, Ohio; University of California, Berkeley and Istanbul Technical University. The article has been influential as indicated by citations including Jeremy Aynsley, 'Graphic Change: Design Change: Magazines for the Domestic Interior, 1890-1930', Publishing the Modern Home, ed. Jeremy Aynsley and Francesca Berry, a special issue of The Journal of Design History, vol. 18, no. 1 (2005), pp. 35-59, p. 58, n. 3. The project has continued presentations at the Women's Library, London Metropolitan University; the Association for Research in Popular Fictions, Liverpool John Moores University; the Bedford Centre for the History of Women, Royal Holloway, University of London and Trinity College Dublin and in a 2007 article for Women's History Review.
The third article (2007) contributes to women’s history and gender history an analysis of domestic advice literature for understanding the impact of the servant problem (a shortage of domestic staff in the first half of the twentieth century which resulted from increased employment options for women) on upper and middle class householders, a desire to entertain aspirationally for members of the working class and changes in domestic practices attendant upon the development post WW2 consumer society. In so doing, it contributes to current work on domesticity, the everyday and consumption a method by which domestic advice becomes a significant resource for women’s history and gender studies. Women’s History Review was chosen as an international peer reviewed journal with prominent robust online and print delivery. Women’s History Review is an A-rated for gender studies meaning it is a high-ranking international publications with a very strong reputation among researchers of the field in different countries, regularly cited all over the world and it is rated B, international standard, for history. Comments from peer reviewers include "well-written, well researched and engaged/engaging." The article was produced with the benefit of competitive funding for research leave, both internal and external: £4000 from the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities and £1000 from the prestigious Design History Society 25th Anniversary Research Award. This article is developed from a paper given at UMIST, Manchester ('"If you find yourself enjoying your own party, it's ten to one your guests aren't": Pride, Prudence and the Post-war Hostess', Vice and Virtue, Social History Society Annual Conference, 4-6 January 2002).
PROJECT OUTCOMES:
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
'Accommodating "Mrs Three in One": Homemaking, Home Entertaining and Domestic Advice Literature in Post-War Britain' Women's History Review, Vol. 16, No. 5, (2007), pp. 723–754. ISSN 1747-583X (electronic) 0961-2025 (paper)
'Studying advice: historiography, methodology, commentary, bibliography', Domestic Design Advice, ed. Grace Lees-Maffei, a special issue of The Journal of Design History, vol. 16, no. 1 (2003), pp. 1-14. ISSN 0952-4649.
'From service to self-service: etiquette writing as design discourse 1920-1970', The Journal of Design History, vol. 14, no. 3 (2001), pp. 187-206. ISSN 0952-4649.
EDITED WORKS:
Forthcoming in 2008 Professionalising Interior Design, a special issue of The Journal of Design History ed. Grace Lees-Maffei and Prof Anne Wealleans.
Domestic Design Advice, ed. Grace Lees-Maffei, a special issue of The Journal of Design History, vol. 16, no. 1, 2003. ISSN 0952-4649. Articles by Professor Penny Sparke, (Kingston), Dr. Judith Attfield (Southampton University), Dr. Rachel Rich (University of Essex), Frances Collard (Victoria & Albert Museum) and Emma Ferry (Kingston).
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:
'Belonging and Belongings: Etiquette Writing as Design Discourse 1920-1970', Making and Unmaking, ed. Tim Putnam, Valerie Swales and Ruth Facey, Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth, 2000, pp. 102-117. ISBN 1-86137-2272.
CONFERENCE PAPERS:
'Tell them where to go: Max Weber, advice discourse and domestic space', Locating Design, Design History Society Annual Conference, London Metropolitan University, http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/research/dhsac/ 7-9 September 2005.
'Beyond Trust and Distrust, Fact and Fiction: Reading Advice Literature and Writing Cultural History', Social History Society http://www.socialhistory.org.uk/index.htm Annual Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, 7-9 January 2005.
'Home Entertaining with Mrs Three-in-One and the Young Moderns: Gender, Age and Reconfiguring the Middle-Class House in Post-war Britain and the USA', Age, Gender and Domestic Culture conference, Bedford Centre for the History of Women, http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Bedford-Centre/index.html Royal Holloway, University of London, 3 July 2004.
"Hatch and Dispatch": Domestic Advice Literature as Narrative Genre', Lifestyle Narratives, Association for Research in Popular Fictions Annual Conference, http://www.arpf.org.uk/
Liverpool John Moores University, 22-23 November 2003.
'"It is sometimes difficult to persuade young teenage girls that blue jeans are not appropriate for every occasion" Consumption and Informalisation in Post-War Advice for Teenage Girls', Advice and the Teenage Girl symposium, The Women's Library, http://www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk/index.html London, April 2003.
'Correctness and Correctives: Advice Literature and Narratives of Post-war Taste', Mind the Map: An International Conference On Design History And Design Studies, http://www.kiad.ac.uk/europrojects/istanbul.htm Istanbul Technical University, 9-12 July 2002. Also invited Chair of Design Education strand.
'Guide Books: Navigating the Shifting Terrain of Mid-century Domesticity', invited paper for Living in a Material World III, http://www.bton.ac.uk/liam/ University of Brighton, 25-27 June 2001.
'"A corner he can call his own": Representing Teen rooms in Mid-Century Advice Literature', Designing Modern Childhoods: Landscape, Buildings and Material Culture, http://www.hum.sdu.dk/projekter/ipfu/designing-childhoods/ University of California at Berkeley, May 2002.
'Conduct and Consumption: Managing the Youthquake in Advice Literature 1945-1970', Youth, Popular Culture and Everyday Living, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, February 2002.
'"If you find yourself enjoying your own party, it's ten to one your guests aren't": Pride, Prudence and the Post-war Hostess', Vice and Virtue, Social History Society Conference, UMIST, Manchester, January 2002.
'Precedent and Permissiveness: the Material Culture of Etiquette in 1960's Britain', The Permissive Society and its Enemies, Institute of Contemporary British History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, July 2001.
'Etiquette Writing and Design Discourse in Britain, 1920-1970', Making and Unmaking, Design History Society Annual Conference, University of Portsmouth, September 2000.
'The Material Culture of Home Entertaining: Social Theory and Domestic Interaction 1920-1970', Invited Research Seminar, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, October 1999.
DISPLAYS:
'Books from the project Designing Domesticity: Advice Literature and Design Discourse in Post-War Britain', Norwich School of Art and Design, from 1st March 2007, ongoing.
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'Designing Domesticity: Discourses of Etiquette, Homemaking and Home Decoration in Britain from 1945', SSAHRI Showcase Event, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Hertfordshire, April 23rd 2007, ongoing. [View PowerPoint, 6.5MB]
LINKS:
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/tvad/glm/DesigningDomesticity.pps
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/tvad/glm/jdh161.pdf
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/tvad/glm/jdh143.pdf
PROJECT FUNDING: - 2007/8 AHRC Research Leave Scheme, £15,000
- 2006/7 £4000 UH Vice Chancellor's Grants in the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities
- 2004/5 Design History Society 25th Anniversary Research Award £1000.
- UH support has awards made through the CCI Faculty Research Leave Scheme.