Transition Design and Ecological Thought
Abstract
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.
References
Armstrong, R. (2015, June). Keynote address presented at Urban Ecologies 2015, Toronto, Canada.
Arsel, M., & Buscher, B. (2012). Nature™ Inc.: Changes and continuities in neoliberal conservation and market-based environmental policy. Development and Change, 43(1), 53-78.
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Boehnert, J. (2014). Design vs. the design industry. Design Philosophy Papers, 12(2), 119-136.
Boehnert, J. (2018a). Design, ecology, politics: Toward the Ecocene. London, England: Bloomsbury.
Boehnert, J. (2018b). Ecological theory in design: Participant designers in an age of entanglement. In R. B. Egenhoefer (Ed.), Routledge handbook of sustainable design (pp. 86-98). London, England: Routledge.
Bonneuil, C., & Fresso, J. B. (2016). The shock of the Anthropocene (Trans. David Fernbach). London, England: Verso.
Breakthrough Institute. (2015). An ecomodernist manifesto. Retrieved from http://www.ecomodernism.org/
Capra, F., & Luigi Luisi, P. (2014). The systems view of life: A unifying vision. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Caradonna,J., Borowy, I., Green, T., Victor, P. A., Cohen, M., Gow, A., . . . R. Heinberg (2015). A degrowth response to the ecomodernist manifesto. Retrieved from http://www.resilience.org/wp-content/uploads/articles/General/2015/05_May/A-Degrowth-Response-to-AnEcomodernist-Manifesto.pdf
Castree, N. (2008). Neoliberalising nature: The logics of deregulation and reregulation. Environment and Planning A, 40, 131-152.
Crutzen, P. J. (2002). Geology of mankind. Nature, 415(3), 23.
Dewberry, E. (2016, June). Eco-literacy in transition: The role of design ecologies in developing our capacity for radical change. Paper presented at the Transition Design Symposium, Devon, England.
Feibleman, J. K. (1954). Theory of integrative levels. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 5, 59-66.
Frazier, C. M. (2016). Troubling ecology: Wangechi Mutu, Octavia Butler, and black feminist interventions in environmentalism. Critical Ethnic Studies, 2(1), 40-77.
Griffin, D. R. (1992). Introduction to SUNY Series in Construction Postmodern Thought. In D. Orr (Ed.), Ecological literacy (pp. i-iv). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Guattari, F. (1995). Chaosmosis (Trans. P. Bains & J. Pefanis). Sydney, Australia: Power Institute.
Guattari, F. (2000). The three ecologies (Trans. I. Pindar & P. Simon). London, England: Continuum.
Günther, F., & Folke, C. (1993). Characteristics of nested living systems. Journal of Biological Systems, 1(3), 257-274.
Haraway, D. (2015). Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making kin. Environmental Humanities, 6, 159-165.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble. Making kin in the Chthulucene. London, England: Duke University Press.
Irwin, T. (2015). Transition Design: A proposal for a new area of design practice, study, and research. Design and Culture, 7(2), 229-246.
Irwin, T., Kossoff, G., Tonkinwise, C., & Scupelli, P. (2015). Transition Design 2015. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University.
Ito, J. (2016). Design and science, Journal of Design and Science, MIT Media Lab, MIT Press. Retrieved from http://mitpress.mit.edu/pub/designandscience
Kallis, G. (2015). An ecomodernist mishmash. Eco-modernization is an oxymoron. Degrowth. Retrieved from https://www.degrowth.de/en/2015/05/an-ecomodernistmishmash/
Latour, B. (2014, November). Anthropology at the time of the Anthropocene - A personal view of what is to be studied. Paper presented at the 113th American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/139-AAA-Washington.pdf
Latour, B. (2015). Fifty shades of green. Environmental Humanities. Breakthrough Dialog, Sausalito. Retrieved from http://environmentalhumanities.dukejournals.org/content/7/1/219.full
Malm, A. (2015). The Anthropocene myth: Blaming all of humanity for climate change lets capitalism off the hook. Jacobin. Retrieved from https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/anthropocene-capitalism-climate-change/
Moore, J. W. (2014). The Capitalocene. Part I: On the nature & origins of our ecological crisis. Retrieved from http://www.jasonwmoore.com/uploads/The_Capitalocene__Part_I__ June_2014.pdf
Moore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism and the web of life. London, England: Verso.
Morton, T. (2007). Ecology without nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Morton, T.(2017). Humankind: Solidarity with nonhuman people. London, England: Verso.
Orr, D. (1992). Ecological literacy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Orr, D. (2002). The nature of design. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Orr, D. (2018). The political economy of design in a hotter time. In R. B. Egenhoefer (Ed.), Routledge handbook of sustainable design (pp. 3-10). London, England: Routledge.
Peck, J. (2010). Constructions of neoliberal reason. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Plumwood, V. (1999). Ecological ethics from rights to recognition: Multiple spheres of justice for humans, animals and nature. In N. Low (Ed.), Global ethics and environment (pp. 188-217). London, England: Routledge.
Plumwood, V. (2002). Environmental culture: The ecological crisis of reason. London, England: Routledge.
Purdy, J. (2015). After nature: A politics for the Anthropocene. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sachs, W. (2010). The development dictionary. London, England: Zed Books.
Santos, B. S. (2007). Cognitive justice in a global world. Plymouth, England: Lexington Books.
Spretnak, C. (1997). The resurgence of the real. New York, NY: Addison-Wesley.
Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., Cornell, S. E., Fetzer, I., Bennett, E. M., Biggs, R., Sörlin, S. (2015). Sustainability. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science, 347(6223), 736.
Sterling, S. (2003). Whole systems thinking as a basis for paradigm change in education (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Bath, England.
Sullivan, S. (2013). Financialisation, biodiversity conservation and equity: Some currents & concerns. Penang, Malaysia: Third World Network.
Wahl, D. C. (2016). Designing regenerative culture. Axminster, England: Triarchy Press.
Wark, M. (2015). Molecular red: Theory for the Anthropocene. London, England: Verso.
White, D., Rudy, A., & Gareau, B. (2015). Environments, natures and social theory: Towards a critical hybridity. London, England: Palgrave.
Los autores/as que publiquen en esta revista ceden los derechos de autor y de publicación a "Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación", Aceptando el registro de su trabajo bajo una licencia de atribución de Creative Commons, que permite a terceros utilizar lo publicado siempre que de el crédito pertinente a los autores y a esta revista.
