“What is good for society is good for us,” Ikea once announced in an ad. Reading Swedish Design leaves little doubt that the company meant it. Keith M. Murphy is an anthropology professor at the University of California, Irvine, and if his field seems far removed from Scandinavian furniture, he approaches the subject in relation to Swedish social welfare programs and democratic socialist ideals. The lamps and tables furnishing our homes and workplaces, in other words, are a “means for managing well-being in everyday life.”
