Review: Swedish Design by Keith M. Murphy

Title: Swedish Design: an Ethnography (published 2015)
Author: Keith M. Murphy
Finished date: 28 Mar 2025

Overview

I picked this book up, I believe, at a thrift store or something like that. Thought it looked interesting. Finally, after like a year or two of sitting on my bookshelf, I finally took it for a spin. It's a book about Swedish design — not so much on the visual elements, but the politics that surround it.

Review

The author is a professor of Anthropology, but he also tackles the topic with philosophical and (socio)linguistic concepts. I noticed he mentioned Deleuze a lot. I'll have to say that most of these concepts flew over my head, but I understood enough to be able to draw some insights without having to dig too deep down his citations.

In summary, what you might find in this book is a dissection of the processes involved in shaping Swedish design... and the other way around, of how Swedish design shaped Swedish culture. I thought one of the more salient points was how Swedish design was used as a means to bridge socioeconomic gaps... because modernist furniture is simple to construct, which meant it was easy to mass-produce at affordable prices. Good taste became a thing not just for the rich, but for everyone. IKEA is the epitome of Swedish design in that regard; it's affordable and regardless of your social status, you'll be delighted to have a piece of their furniture in your house.

Conclusion

Rating: 4/5
There's really a lot of merit in reading non-fiction, and this academic work, which is built after years of immersion in Swedish culture, is an inspiring one.