Scandinavian Dreams: DIY, Democratisation and IKEA

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the viability of using IKEA as a metaphor to discuss recent socio-cultural trends within consumer society. Through an analysis of IKEA’s business practice of “democratic design”—which refers to the production of elite modernist furnishings for a mass culture—the article explores the blurring of formerly distinct class cultures related to the consumption of elite modernist-design and mass-cultural furnishings. It situates this discussion within the wider framework of cultural democratisation. The article also examines the self-assembly nature of IKEA’s furniture to highlight specific cultural trends. The self-assembly furniture is considered in light of wider trends towards privatisation and individualisation. In addition, it focuses upon the role of self-assembly as part of DIY home culture, which is simultaneously classified as a mode of “productive leisure.” Finally, the article examines the constitutive role of self-assembly and DIY in the production of the self.