Ruling on the Profession: Interior Design in the Courts. Issue 2 (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cunningham, Erin
• Is Part Of: Journal of interior design. Volume 40:Issue 2(2015)
• Page Start: 25
• Page End: 35
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Interior decoration -- Periodicals; Interior decoration -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 729.05
• DOI: 10.1111/joid.12041
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1071-7641

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="joid12041-abs-0001"> <title>ABSTRACT</title> <p id="joid12041-para-0001">This paper uses the legal story of an interior design practitioner, Florence Karasik, as a basis for a broader discussion of the professionalization of interior design. The <italic>Karasik</italic> case will demonstrate three things: (1) that law, which is largely neglected in histories of professionalism, is an important barometer for shifting opinions about what it means to be a profession; (2) that everyday people, like Florence Karasik, had their own, popular conceptions of interior design as a profession; and (3) that popular and legal conceptions of the professionalization of interior design did not always align. The <italic>Karasik</italic> case, which disclosed a dynamic legal and popular conversation about what it meant to be a professional interior designer, highlights the increasingly decisive role the state would play in the second half of the twentieth century in determining the professional status of interior design.</p> </abstract>