On 1 October 2010, Trine Brun Petersen successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation, Statsfængslet Østjylland som social teknologi – en diskussion af design som et ideologisk og adfærdsregulerende fænomen (The Danish state prison Statsfængslet Østjylland as social technology – a discussion of design as an ideological and behaviour-regulating phenomenon). The dissertation addresses the issue of the potential of design to affect human behaviour and social relations. Trine Brun Petersen argues that design is not value-neutral: on the contrary, it is imbued with social interests and power relations. One of the goals of her research is to bring out new knowledge about the values base underlying the design of our everyday objects and physical environment, from cutlery to urban planning. Thus, she may examine which users the designers of a product are choosing to accommodate. For example, when a park bench is designed to prevent people from lying down on it, the design marginalises unintended users, such as homeless people.

Trine Brun Petersen’s main research object in her Ph.D. dissertation is the Danish state prison Statsfængslet Østjylland, where architects and designers have sought to facilitate social contacts among prison inmates and staff. In her project she investigates to what extent the prison design lives up to this intention in practice.

Trine Brun Petersen graduated as an M.A. in modern culture and cultural communication from the University of Copenhagen in 2003 and earned a Ph.D. from the Kolding School of Design in 2010.

Trine Brun Petersen’s Ph.D. project is described in the webzine Mind Design: Designing Means Executing Power, Mind Design #32, October 2010.

Portrait of Trine Brun Petersen: Export of Design Knowledge, Mind Design #32, October 2010.