Metadesigning Designing in the Anthropocene

Book excerpt: Long-sighted, radical and provocative, this book offers a foundational framework of concepts, principles and methods (exemplified with selected tools) to enable metadesigners to manage and reinvent their practices. The book reminds readers that designers are, albeit unwittingly, helping to shape the Anthropocene. Despite their willingness to deliver greener products and services, designers find themselves part of an industry that has become the go-to catalyst for dividends and profit. If our species is to achieve the rehabilitation and metamorphosis, we may need to design at the level of paradigms, genres, lifestyles and currencies. This would mean making design more integrated, comprehensive, adaptive, transdisciplinary, self-reflexive and relational. The book, therefore, advocates a shift of emphasis from designing ‘sustainable’ products, services and systems towards cultivating synergies that will induce regenerative lifestyles. The book will be of interest to managers, designers, scholars and educators from a wide range of backgrounds, including design research, design history, design studies and environmental studies.