A Historical Sociology Interpretation On European Modern Design

The historical study plays a significant role in the academic research of modern design. As one of the most important origins of modern design in history, European modern design always draws the intense attention within modern design historical study. It will be greatly contributed to the comprehension of modern design history and to the development of modern design in future if took a constant investigation to its historical evolution and continuously learned its implicit historical mechanism. According to this research target and the methodological use of historical sociology which based on the historical and sociological research principles, the dissertation comparatively analysed and typologically interpreted the social mechanism of European modern design’s origin from the dimensions of industrial technology, political system, economical policy, and spiritual belief under the background of European social modernisation change. The study resulted as following:Firstly, European modern design’s origin was associated closely with industrial manufacture technology. The industrial technology exerted a distinctive mechanism of action on European modern design development. The European designers and ideologists’ attitude towards it experienced a transformation from rejection to acceptance. Under this changing of attitude, it revealed the cognitive diversity between the early and the successive industrialised countries in Europe about industrial technology and new aesthetics of the modern design movements. This diversity finally caused the real modernism of design arose in successive industrialised countries, in stead of early industrialised countries.Secondly, European political system and economical policy still gave a strong effect on European modern design’s historical progress in a diversified way. The constitutional system and liberalism in west Europe provided an ideological tolerance to moderrn design movements there. The movements in west Europe (especially in England) had a very active expression of social care awareness and political ideology, but lacked of organised support from national level. Comparatively speaking however, the bureaucratic centralisation and nationalism in central and east Europe, exerted a strengthened governing to the movements in those regions, which then provided two sides effect:if the modern movements and the authority had a similar political or ideological target, it would be a short term stimulation from the latter to the former. But if there was any deviation, it would be an instant restraining towards the former. This kind of restriction could be more obvious especially from the prospective of long term run. The social economical system and policy also had a Polyphony function to the development of European modern design. The free market economy in west Europe led to prosperity of commercial design business, while central and east Europe’s monopoly and governed economy again gave a double effect along with the corresponding political system.Nevertheless, the emergence of modern design did not only caused by the objective historical situation, but it also carried subjective cultural meaning. Based on their inner spiritual belief, many European modern designers viewed design as a social improvement means and provided their social reform solutions by design. Moreover, the European cultural tradition was also embodied in modern design, especially in the name of rationalism and idealism. For rationalism, European industrialised modern society could have been regarded as the rational culture presentation on technology. It gave a reasonable action to design. Accordingly, European modern movements still showed a rationalisation process by the attitude’s change to industrial technology. Then, the idealism generally reflected itself on the utopia dreams possessed by European modern designers. Some of them make use of design as a spiritual comfort to unsatisfied social reality, while the others as an approach to their religious dream land in their hearts.By the interpretation above, it is concluded that the origin and evolution of European modern design beard the unique but non-duplicable historical characteristics. Its original causes were set by modern European specific social structure which came from macroscopical social change. Meanwhile, the sustained European cultural tradition enriched its social value or significance again. In order to improve such a historical comprehension, it necessarily calls an intentional conversion from historical narration to analysis, and it needs a theoretical sociology perspective as well. From this perspective, it confirms the analytical precondition as recognising the social change and the relevant specialised social structure. Under the same precondition, as the subjectiveness of historical activity, the historical figures’thoughts along with their practical actions which interacted with the social background became the key point to dominate the European modern design process. Consequently, it avoids those mistakes which considered this period of history only created by any individuals’ arbitrariness and which had it simplified into chronicle narration.