Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean

What happens when researchers foreground Latin American and Caribbean agency in design? Guided by this challenge, we sought to create a new approach to the discourse on Latin American and Caribbean design history. Through the formation of a network of scholars working across the globe, the organization of dedicated themed panels at international conferences, and the culmination of these efforts in this edited volume, we propose to decolonize and globalize the study of design history in and from that region. To this end, this Introduction situates the fluctuation of interest in Latin American and Caribbean Studies in Europe and the United States, and discusses how the development of Latin American and Caribbean design history need not follow some of the colonialist premises instigated by area studies' scholars. Rather, through a critical review of historiographical trends found in both area studies and in design studies and history journal articles, this Introduction offers an interpretation of how and why design historical understanding has been produced in and from that region, and points to fruitful developments in this scholarship. In order to highlight design agency, we propose to focus on design exchanges', understood as meetings and encounters of cultural practices, peoples and objects.