Designing as Middle Ground

The theoretical background in this chapter is science and technology studies and actor network theory, enabling investigation of heterogeneity, agency and perfor-mative effects through ‘symmetric’ analysis. The concept of design is defined as being imaginative and mindful to a number of actors in a network of humans and non-humans, highlighting that design objects and the designer as an authority are constructed throughout this endeavour. The illustrative case example is drawn from product development in a rubber valve factory in Jutland in Denmark. The key contribution to a general core of design research is an articulation of design activity taking place as a middle ground and as an intermixture between a ‘scientific’ regime of knowledge transfer and a capital ‘D’ ‘Designerly’ regime of authoring.