消费主义导向的技术设计伦理问题及其治理路径

Ethical Issues and Governance Strategies in Technological Design from the Oriented of Consumerism

现代消费主义起源于20世纪美国工业设计时期,其标志是“有计划报废制”的形成与消费者工程学的确立。虽然消费主义促进了当时美国经济的发展,但作为一种企业营销手段,也带来了诸多技术设计的伦理问题。有关工业设计师的道德思考在消费主义中的切入与反省变得逐渐困难,进而对利益相关者之间关系的协调和人类社会可持续发展带来了一定的负面影响。为应对消费主义导向的技术设计带来的伦理问题,通过辩证分析帕帕奈克的技术设计伦理观,提取其中合理的思想成分,包括重新定位技术设计的本质、区分需求与欲求以及责任设计与责任伦理并重,实现理论层面对技术设计伦理问题的反思与超越,并利用3R技术设计方法中的“减少”“再用”与“循环”的设计核心理念来促进实践层面人-社会-自然之间的协调发展。

Consumerism,as a social concept popular in developed Western countries,it is a general term for the corresponding concepts that guide and regulate people's actions and relationships related to consumption.The emergence of consumerism is based on the nature of capital's pursuit of profit,which is marked by the constant renewal of products in the 20th century American industrial design period,bringing more consumption,i.e.,the formation of"planned obsolescence"and the establishment of consumer engineering,which actually means the formation of"market-led design"mode.Although the emergence of consumerism promoted the development and prosperity of the American economy at that time,consumerism as a corporate marketing tool,it made difficult for industrial designers,who were engaged in the operation of the capital chain,to transcend the limitations of consumerism in their thinking about morality,which would impact on the co-ordination of the relationship between stakeholders and the sustainable development of human society.As the first generation of American industrial design pioneers,such as Dreyfuss,Loewy and Whiteley were keenly aware of this problem,and their rebellion against consumerism reflected the awakening of industrial designers'professional consciousness that design ethics could be integrated into the profession of design in some way.Since their ethical awareness only remained in the act of resisting consumerism and lacked a more mature ethical concept,their influence was not obvious.Victor J.Papanek's reflection on the ethical issues of technical design is based on this grim reality.This paper firstly draws on the reasonable ideological components of Papanek's ethical view of technical design,and repositions the essence of technical design as a new kind of functionalism,"designing for the real world"focusing on the distinction between needs and desires,as well as the synergistic development of the ethical conception of responsible design and the cultivation of the responsibility of industrial designers.And to implement Papanek's ethical concept of technology design by using the 3R technology design methodology,in which"reduce","reuse"and"recycle"are the key elements of the ethical concept.The core design concepts of"reduce","reuse"and"recycle"can gradually alleviate the ethical problems brought by consumerism,and provide a certain theoretical basis for future research on consumerism.However,as one of the ways to manage the ethical problems caused by consumerism,the core design concepts of"Reduce","Reuse"and"Recycle"of the 3R technology design method require certain conditions of application in practice,i.e.industrial designers are required to focus on protecting the environment in the process of product design,use and waste disposal,reflecting a path of governance aimed at sustainability.Of course,it is not possible to force all technical designs to be completed under this concept,and it is also necessary to play the role of emotional design,ergonomics and other pathways.In China's future product technology design,it is also necessary to learn from the 3R technology design method and carry out independentdesign method innovation,so as to make its own contribution to the creation of sustainable green products with Chinese characteristics and the promotion of the coordinated development of mankind-society-nature.