Design vs. the design industry

This article argues that designers are currently not able to effectively address contemporary environmental and social problems due to the systemic priorities of the design industry. Despite the fact that emergent cognitive and perceptual capacities enable a greater understanding of complexity and design practice evolves creating potential for social and technological innovation, the structural dynamics of the design industry reproduce conditions of deep unsustainability. In this article,“design” is theorized as the professional practice of creating new products, buildings, services, and communication. This is a broader practice than the work that is produced within the “design industry.” The design industry operates according to highly reductive feedback generated by capitalism that systemically ignores signals from the ecological and social systems. The exclusive focus on profit and quantitative economic growth results in distortions of knowledge and reason thereby undermining prospects for the design of long-term prosperity. Redirected design practice could be an antidote to this dilemma by transforming the system that determines what is designed. This article provides an overview of the political and economic dynamics that are relevant to designers concerned with sustainability

Transition Design and Ecological Thought

Múltiples hallazgos en diversas ciencias han demostrado la complejidad de las relaciones humano-naturaleza, y han expuesto las limitaciones de las tradiciones filosóficas que minimizan, descartan o incluso niegan la importancia de los procesos que sostienen la vida y que permiten la existencia humana. Este artículo revisa el pensamiento ecológico histórico y contemporáneo como una base para el Diseño para la Transición. El diseño ecológicamente comprometido presenta desafíos profundos para una variedad de suposiciones incrustadas en las culturas del diseño. En este documento se exploran las tensiones asociadas junto con algunas de las formas en que el Diseño para la Transición, ecológicamente alfabetizado, puede conducir a la creación de futuros sostenibles.Multiple findings across various sciences have demonstrated the complexity of human-nature relations and exposed the limitations of normative philosophical traditions that discount, dismiss, or even deny the importance of life-sustaining processes that enable human existence. This paper reviews historical and contemporary ecological thought as a basis for Transition Design. Ecologically engaged design presents profound challenges to a variety of assumptions embedded in design cultures. Associated tensions are explored in this paper along with some of the ways that ecologically literate Transition Design can drive the creations of sustainable futures. Muitas descobertas em diversas ciências demostraram a complexidade das relações do ser humano com a natureza e expuseram as limitações das tradições filosóficas que minimizam, descartam ou inclusive negam a importância dos processos que sustentam a vida e que permitem a existência humana. Este artigo revisa o pensamento ecológico histórico e contemporâneo como base para o Design para a Transição, ecologicamente alfabetizado, pode conduzir à criação de futuros sustentáveis. &nbsp

Ecocene economics and design: nature-inspired economies and transition design

Ecocene economics and design: nature-inspired economies and transition desig

The 2012 imperative teach-in for ecological literacy in design education

Case Studies 143The 2012 Imperative is a transformative learning project with the ambitious objective of embedding ecological and sustainability literacy in design education by 2012. The project . was launched with a ‘Teach-in’ which took place on 12 October2009 in a large lecture theatre at the Victoria and Albert Museum(V&A) in London. Sustainable education will depend on an ecologically literate educational paradigm, but making this shift is a daunting challenge.Stephen Sterling’s work on transformative learning suggests that a participatory approach to learning is necessary in order to effect the change in attitudes and behaviour required to integrate sustainability into formal education. This case study will describe the 2012 ImperativeTeach-in and report on progress towards the project’s goals. For background information please see the website

Mapping climate communication: No.2 Network of actors

Mapping climate communication: No.2 Network of actor

Ecological literacy in design education - A theoretical introduction

Sustainability educators developed the concept of ecological literacy to provide a basis for understanding environmental problems and developing new capacities and critical skills to respond effectively. This paper presents a theoretical introduction to ecological literacy for design education. It starts with a philosophical overview of why ecological literacy is neces­sary, including details of some of the planet’s vital signs. The paper then describes six ecologi­cal principles (networks, nested systems, cycles, flows, development and dynamic balance) along with associated design concepts (resilience, epistemological awareness, a circular econ­omy, energy literacy, emergence and the ecological footprint). The final section explains why critical ecological literacy is necessary to make the work of transforming unsustainable condi­tions and designing sustainable ways of living possible

Anthropocene economics and design: Heterodox economics for design transitions

Economics is a field under fierce contestation. In response to the intersecting challenges of the Anthropocene, scholars who take a broader and more critical view of current economic models have described the shortcomings of orthodox economic theory along with the severe consequences of its systemic discounting of the environment. Heterodox economists describe how the logic of neoclassical and neoliberal economics disregards the interests and needs of the natural world, women, workers, and other historically disadvantaged groups. Explorations of the household, the state, and the commons as alternative economies open space at the intersection of economics and design for incorporating and valuing the provisioning services provided by the ecological context and the undervalued work provided by certain groups of people. Design theorists, economists, social and cultural theorists, and anthropologists describe the relationship between value and values in ways that reveal how sustainable and socially just futures depend on the priorities (notions of value) embedded in the systems that determine what is designed. With these ideas, design can contribute to economic transitions with conceptualizing, modeling, mapping, framing, and other future making practices. Ecologically engaged, heterodox economics is a basis for societal responses to climate change on a scale that can make a difference

Transition design and ecological thought

Multiple findings across various sciences have demonstrated the complexity of human-nature relations and exposed the limitations of normative philosophical traditions that discount, dismiss, or even deny the importance of life-sustaining processes that enable human existence. This paper reviews historical and contemporary ecological thought as a basis for Transition Design. Ecologically engaged design presents profound challenges to a variety of assumptions embedded in design cultures. Associated tensions are explored in this paper along with some of the ways that ecologically literate Transition Design can drive the creations of sustainable futures