• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.5 s.67
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• pp.31-42
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• 2006

Design, to all of us living in the 21st century, is not just an action that revs up the production and consumption as an added value of an industry, but it is recognized as a broader social and cultural action in practice. The purpose of this study is to broaden the role of design as a principal body producing culture, and to proclaim that design itself has to have self-sufficiency as culture. The study starts from a hypothesis that the action of design should be at the core of cultural industry. The study includes studying the documents on and analyzing the current status and case studies of cultural industry and design policies for macro view. Comparative research and analysis of how designers from three countries, Korea, United States and England, perceive policies is a microscopic part of this study. The methods for this study include survey for quantitative research in Korea, United States and England, and intensive interviews for qualitative research to explain past facts and the current situation of design policies. The survey compares design professionals of three countries, and the intensive interviews are done with manager level design professionals who are both decision makers and policy makers. On order to prove the appropriateness of the survey structure, three pilot studies and a pre-test were carried out. As shown in the verification of the subject of study, if, in the cultural industry which was considered to be the blossom of 20th century, the blind running without intervention of reason still keeps its former state and is unable to go beyond history, we will not be able to enter the age of mentality and fall behind. The value of design that we shall judge depends on the dialectic of 'past' and 'present' regarding the principle of enlightenment, and it will open up a new philosophy, a new civilization and a new world.