Technology, Wellbeing, and Freedom: The Legacy of Utopian Design
Steven Dorrestijn
www.stevendorrestijn.nl
Department of Industrial Design, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
Dr. Steven Dorrestijn is assistant professor in the Industrial Design Department of the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Dorrestijn graduated in 2004 from the University of Twente and in 2005–2006 he completed a Master in Philosophy in Paris with the support of a grant from the French government. In 2012 Dorrestijn finished his PhD thesis, The design of our own lives, at the University of Twente, Department of Philosophy (download via www.stevendorrestijn.nl). In his research Dorrestijn contrived a model and repertoire of effects of technologies on people, and also focused on people’s practices when accommodating new technologies in their lives. This approach to the role of technologies in people’s everyday practices is a much-needed complement to theoretical approaches in ethics. At the same time it is helpful for user-centered design in improving product usability and acceptance.
Peter-Paul Verbeek
www.ppverbeek.nl
Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
Dr. Peter-Paul Verbeek is professor of philosophy of technology and chair of the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, the Netherlands. Verbeek is the author of several books focusing on the social and cultural roles of technology and the ethical and anthropological aspects of human-technology relations. In Moralizing Technology (2011), he analyzes the moral significance of technologies, and its implications for ethical theory and for design practices. What Things Do (2005) investigates how technologies mediate human actions and experiences, with applications to industrial design. He is also co-editor of the volume User Behavior and Technology Design (2006), about the interaction between technology and behavior and its relevance to technology design and environmental policy. Industrial design has been an important research domain for Verbeek, while he recently has also been working on technology in healthcare, especially focusing on the theme of human enhancement.