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Distributed for Intellect Ltd

The Social Object

Apprehending Materiality for Industrial Design Practice

A study of objects and domestic spaces of middle-class India.

Drawing on the methods of design history, material culture studies, and the social construction of technology, this book analyzes the domestic spaces and objects in the homes of the middle class in India, describing how people make meaning of the objects they buy, own, and gift.

Soumitri Varadarajan argues against a simplistic universal account of the way we think about how objects are designed. Instead, he presents a biography of projects and objects, offering a detailed and affectionate account of the lives of objects within the homes of the not-so-rich.
 

270 pages | 6.69 x 9.61 | © 2025

Art: Art--General Studies

Sociology: General Sociology


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Table of Contents

Introduction   

Chapter 1: Waste-work            

Chapter 2: The place

Chapter 3: The right way         

Chapter 4: The object journey             

Chapter 5: Sites for objects 

Chapter 6: Designed objects                

Conclusion      

Bibliography   

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