National support for design, the development of propositional models

Many governments around the world acknowledge the role and value of design and have formulated design policies that include national business support programs in design, and that invest in building the capacity of their design sectors. These policies, however, heavily depend on national political and economic contingencies, and thus are subject to change and revision with the advent of each new administration. The alternative-leaning more heavily on nongovernmental organizations and regional design bodies-has its benefits but would also be subject to economic and political turns of fate. This paper reports on an investigation of national design policies in the UK and South Korea and explores some alternative models for developing and implementing these policies. The authors, who hail from Brunel, Loughborough, and Lancaster universities, presented the models to roughly a dozen participants from the design communities in several nations. They found that although no single model was chosen by a majority of respondents, most felt that there had to be some government involvement and endorsement of the policy for it to achieve any success