How products satisfy needs beyond the functional: Empathy supporting consumer-product relationships

This chapter discusses the role and nature of design practice in academia. Design research today is characterized by its focus on technological innovation, especially digital innovation, and on collaborations between university researchers and private or public sector organizations to address practical concerns. Modernity has its origins in philosophical and scientific developments that began as far back as the European Renaissance. According to Hick, we act meaningfully when we interpret the world around us correctly and act appropriately. When combined with the West’s new-found technological might, it led to the exploitation of other nations in ways that included slavery, colonialism and the acquisition of lands and natural resources. The 1950s witnessed nuclear proliferation, the Cold War and the persistent threat of a conflagration between the West and the Eastern Bloc. Grassroots design concerned with approaches that are place-based and locally relevant.