Recent Histories of the Professionalization of Interior Design: From Gatekeeping to Inclusion

Studies of the professionalization of interior design have emphasized the role of education, regulation, accreditation, peer review, publication, and other forms of promotion and gatekeeping as central to understanding the development of the field. But if professions are understood simply as loci of gatekeeping, exclusion and normativity, they risk obstructing the achievement of equality or equity, diversity and inclusion. This article adds to existing discussions of interior designers’ and interior design educators’ professionalism and skill sets a commitment to social justice. It does so through a survey of histories of the professionalization of interior design published since 2008, a year which is recognized retrospectively as marking the beginning of a surge of historical studies of interior design. This new article is focused on three intersectionally-connected areas: (i) decolonization; (ii) sex, gender and sexuality; and (iii) subjectivities, exemplified by disability and the senses. Grassroots activity on the part of interior designers and design educators, motivated by a commitment to make their practice, workplaces and field more accessible, equitable, diverse and inclusive, informed international legal and political frameworks such as the UK’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) laws, and EDI (or DEI) initiatives in the US. The latter are currently being dismantled in the some regions, making academic attention to such issues even more pressing. Histories of the professionalization of interior design have diversified productively since 2008 but there is more work to be done.