디자인의 문화적 이해를 위한 사회이론적 탐구 : 파슨스의 문화이론을 통해서 본 디자인과 문화, 그리고 기능의 문제

This essay starts from a perception that social cultural theories based on strict conceptual explanations should be introduced in practical areas such as design for cultural understanding. By reconstructing Talcott Parsons, a systems theorist as well as a structural functionalist, in terms of cultural theory, this essay presents an example, as a path and a conceptual map of cultural studies, which illuminates the question of design, culture and function. The reason why I choose this subject, the theory of Parsons, for the cultural understanding of design - therefore the possible theoretical achievement of this work - is as follows. First, to connect design theory and social theory through 'functionalism' enables us to explain the aesthetic, symbolic function as well as the practical(economic, technical) function of design. At the same time, it enables us to present the significance of cultural interpretation of design. In fact, Discourses on design have occupied the core of design history,and underneath these discourses, there are tensions between the practical(economic, technical), aesthetic, and symbolic function of design. Second, it is necessary to introduce Parsonian functional social theory into functionalist design theory since functionalist design theory only offers economic explications assuming that human beings are rational. Parsonian functionalist social theory, combined closely with systems theory, examines the cultural system in relation to the economic,political, social system. By emphasizing cultural understanding of normative dimensions of human action as well as by attacking the model of ‘economic man’, Parsonian functionalism in social theory contains abundant cultural theoretical implications. Third, cultural variables,used in Trompenaars(1994) and Hofstede(2010), and recited from them in design studies in Korea, have originated from Parsons's model of ‘pattern variables’. However, by focusing on patterning and measuring functional variables, cultural studies in design distort Pasons's intention to use pattern variables in exploring social change and the role of culture in that change. Bearing these theoretical contributions in mind, I begin with a discussion of the historical background of functionalism, the extended functionalism, which is a humanism-oriented formative theory,and Parsons's functionalism in social theory. I will then reconstruct and analyze Parsons's theory from the cultural point of view. Lastly, I will conclude with some remarks on the significance of Parsons's work for the cultural understanding of design.