The asymmetrical anthropocene: resilience and the limits of posthumanism

In this article we critique resilience’s oft-celebrated overcoming of modern liberal frameworks. We bring work on resilience in geography and cognate fields into conversation with explorations of the ‘asymmetrical Anthropocene’, an emerging body of thought which emphasizes human-nonhuman relational asymmetry. Despite their resonances, there has been little engagement between these two responses to the human/world binary. This is important for changing the terms of the policy debate: engaging resilience through the asymmetrical Anthropocene framing shines a different light upon policy discourses of adaptative management, locating resilience as a continuation of modernity’s anthropocentric will-to-govern. From this vantage point, resilience is problematic, neglecting the powers of nonhuman worlds that are not accessible or appropriable for governmental use. However, this is not necessarily grounds for pessimism. To conclude, we argue that human political agency is even more vital in an indeterminate world

'Everything in the Forest Is the Forest':A Decade of the Sustainability in (Inter)Action Forum

In this forum we highlight innovative thought, design, and research in the area of interaction design and sustainability, illustrating the diversity of approaches across HCI communities

Empoderando la alfabetización en diseño responsable: identificando narrativas en un nuevo plan de estudios

Products of human creativity have altered nature to such an extent that a new geological epoch was proposed, the Anthropocene, wherein we keep failing together. Integrating design in any curriculum fuels change by exploring and questioning existing knowledge and situations. A pressing global situation requires a fundamental redirection of the purpose of design and of design education to advance socioecological sustainability. This paper reviews the competence goals of the new Norwegian national curriculum in the subject Art and Crafts for primary and lower secondary education (Years 1–10) through a framework consisting of four narratives on cultivating responsible design literacy. The narratives that support the reflective practices within a studio are widely represented in the competence goals, whereas the narratives that shift the focus to the society outside the studios and might encourage projects that challenge pupils to fundamentally rethink human needs and desires are scarcely represented. The four narratives break the concept of design literacy into tangible pillars that show how to advance socioecological responsibility, navigate the complexity and ethical concerns of human living, and advance design responses that care for both people and the planet.Products of human creativity have altered nature to such an extent that a new geological epoch was proposed, the Anthropocene, wherein we keep failing together. Integrating design in any curriculum fuels change by exploring and questioning existing knowledge and situations. A pressing global situation requires a fundamental redirection of the purpose of design and of design education to advance socioecological sustainability. This paper reviews the competence goals of the new Norwegian national curriculum in the subject Art and Crafts for primary and lower secondary education (Years 1–10) through a framework consisting of four narratives on cultivating responsible design literacy. The narratives that support the reflective practices within a studio are widely represented in the competence goals, whereas the narratives that shift the focus to the society outside the studios and might encourage projects that challenge pupils to fundamentally rethink human needs and desires are scarcely represented. The four narratives break the concept of design literacy into tangible pillars that show how to advance socioecological responsibility, navigate the complexity and ethical concerns of human living, and advance design responses that care for both people and the planet

Fashion in Utopia, Utopia in Fashion

Editorial paper for the guest-edited special issue Utopia and Fashion “Utopia and Fashion” comes at a time when the fashion industry faces a self-inflicted crisis that forces it to fundamentally rethink its own future. The desire to address the wrongs of the status quo and imagine alternatives and future possibilities has always been the driving force behind utopian thinking. The production of this special issue, “Utopia and Fashion,” at a time when the future of our relationship with fashion is being so widely discussed is not motivated by a wish to find “a stick with which to beat contemporary fashion,” which, according to fashion historian Aileen Ribeiro, has often been the case in utopian writing.19 On the contrary, this special issue is intended to be an initial contribution to what we hope could become a long-term dialogue regarding both the role of fashion in utopian thinking and the potential of utopian thinking to reimagine and inspire better futures for fashion. Included in this issue are three articles with a historical focus; two of these examine the role of fashion in selected utopian and dystopian texts, while the third explores more radical early twentieth-century visions of nudity as liberation from the oppression of dress. The other contributions engage with the critical issues surrounding fashion production and consumption. In addition to the essays in the “Articles” section, we include contributions from contemporary artists and designers whose practices, in different ways, challenge how fashion and clothing are currently used, experienced,and appreciated. By including the “Artist Statements” section, we aimed to bridge the often unhelpful gap between theoretical discussion and practical implementation and so complement some of the discussion in this issue with tangible examples of how fashion and our relationship with clothes can be rethought through art and design practice

Design in the anthropocene, broadening human centred design

Service design innovations have the potential to contribute to systemic change towards some of the most pressing problems of modern society such as climate mitigation and equitable integration of the disadvantaged sections of the society. Although there are many theories and frameworks guiding the transition towards environmental and social sustainability, implementing them into practice could be challenging. To understand these challenges, I am reflecting on three service design projects done as part of the academic curriculum in 2020. By reflecting on my learning experiences, I intend to translate my learnings to other creative practitioners to broaden the current human-centred paradigm of problem-solving towards a wider lens of systems thinking towards the collective good. After mapping out three milestones of the projects — project briefing, reframing, intervention point, I indulged my teammates and experts to share their perspectives on the role of designers to reframe and intervene the wicked challenges towards systemic innovation. Through this process, four takeaways were generated. First, it was observed that there were benefits in terms of clarifying the semantics of concepts and terms, exploring hidden assumptions, and building a unified meaning of the context. Second, the need for systems mapping before stakeholder mapping is identified. Third, emphasis is laid on the underpinning role of service designers as visionaries of the project who propose the scope of sustainability in the form of manageable and strategic goals. Lastly, accentuating the culture of monitoring the impact of the outcome generated. As a result of this study, a list of recommended questions is generated that could be pondered upon at different stages of the design process starting from project briefing to reframing to intervention to outcome delivery. The recommended questions are conceptualised to help service designers, especially entry-level designers who might get weighed down by practical tasks such as making visuals and conducting workshops to reorient their role in the team as strategic thinkers and visionaries towards solving complex problems. The set of recommendations could also be used to probe their teammates to keep the bigger picture in mind

Key Performance Indicators in design for sustainable rural transport

Rural areas are less attractive and sustainable for people and businesses alike, partially due to inadequate transport services. In this paper, we address transport-related challenges in rural Norway. The focal aspect of our approach is to define a set of values for the design and mechanisms of transitioning towards more sustainable rural transport making a real-life difference for people living in rural areas. We connect UN sustainability goals and transition design to discuss how these can be operationalized and used throughout the design process seeking to innovate rural transport. Reflecting on how to find the initial ‘leverage points’ to scaffold the transition to more sustainable transport systems, we explore the possibility of introducing relevant Key Performance Indicators early on in the design process. We report on our experiences and findings regarding the use Key Performance Indicators in different phases of a design-led innovation process.publishedVersio

Making Sense of Design Space: Design Perspectives on the Idea of Organization and Strategizing

This dissertation bridges areas of design research with organization and management studies with the aim of increasing interdisciplinary understanding of design. An increasing number of designers in industrial settings, besides designing physical objects, are involved in shaping services and experiences by utilizing evolving information technology. While design approaches have gained increased visibility in managerial realms the position of design managers participating in strategizing and organizational action calls for proliferation of paradigms and reflexivity on frames guiding such action. This research aims at enriching both design theories and areas of research in organization and management studies by bridging perspectives emerging from these fields. It does so by asking whether and how design theories and design managers might influence the idea of organization and its strategic direction. The positivist understanding of an organization is juxtaposed with philosophical perspectives from the traditions of social constructionism, hermeneutics and reflexivity. Qualitative research approaches are combined with sensemaking and design approaches. The research is positioned at the intersection of managerial traditions and frames and general values of design often concerned with human wellbeing. However, instead of embedding design into organizational traditions and structures, the research moves from this pre-understanding towards suggesting and making sense of an evolving design space as a social and linguistic, but also material and embodied phenomenon in which strategizing, sensemaking and design are in a continuous flow of becoming. Through the three sub-studies, the research evolves towards broader understanding of designing in organizational industrial settings. Design managers´ context is addressed by disclosing possible frames while combining micro and macro levels of organizational thinking from partly critical perspectives. The longitudinal research covers interviews among experienced designers in middle or senior management positions working in Silicon Valley between the years 2013 and 2016. Most participants represented large technology-driven multinationals and design consultancies. The first sub-study utilized theory elaboration by combining perspectives on sensemaking, strategizing and design into a preliminary theoretical model. The second sub-study focused on design managers´ language through identification of normalising and denormalising language use. The third sub-study addressed the information technology field as an example to discuss the need for ethics and attention to potential harmful consequences in the domain of design and strategizing for more awareness and responsible future outcomes. Reaching beyond the firm-centric and use-stage specific questions, designers might display more intense participation in strategic decision making concerning pre-use and post-use stage consequences for users, and additionally, for third-parties, locally, globally and digitally. Designers may act as supporters and challengers of evolving strategies while mediating between frame adoption and frame extension. At times, historically developed strategic frames may become reproduced. However, denormalising language used by design managers with material–linguistic strengths could trigger critical reflection on strategic assumptions. The dissertation proposed a way of understanding organizational strategizing differently through the suggestion to rather speak about design space in which strategic action and sensemaking are situated. The design space understood as a continuously evolving social construction in becoming is a site of sensemaking inviting actors from diverse fields into an interdisciplinary dialogue. By questioning the obvious, designers as managers may contribute to increased responsibility, transparency, sustainability and ethics in decision making concerning the rapidly evolving industrial and digitalizing contexts. Future designers as hybrid co-strategists may gain more power through their managerial roles making awareness and critical discussion on frames and taken-for-granted beliefs across occupational domains important. Finally, a suggestion to reframe the concept of meaning innovation was made. The research makes a design contribution to creative and critical streams of organization and management studies, as well as sensemaking studies and suggests some interdisciplinary issues for further research bridging these fields