Design as Politics [Hardcover]

Design as Politicsconfronts the inadequacy of contemporary politics to deal with unsustainability. Current 'solutions' to unsustainability are analysed as utterly insufficient for dealing with the problems but, further than this, the book questions the very ability of democracy to deliver a sustainable future.

Design as Politicsargues that finding solutions to this problem, of which climate change is only one part, demands original and radical thinking. Rather than reverting to failed political ideologies, the book proposes a post-democratic politics. In this, Design occupies a major role, not as it is but as it could be if transformed into a powerful agent of change, a force to create and extend freedom. The book does no less than position Design as a vital form of political action.

Introduction PART ONE: DESIGN, POLITICS, & DEFUTURING 1. Facing Finitude 2. Totally Inadequate Solutions 3. Redirection: Design & Things PART TWO: RE-FRAMING THE POLITICAL 4. The Political, Sovereignty & Design 5. The Shadow of Carl Schmitt's Politics 6. Pluralism is a Political Problem 7. Remaking Sovereignty PART 3: DESIGN FUTURING AS MAKING TIME 8. New Building for a New World 9. On Freedom by Design 10. Design Beyond the Limits Notes Selected Reading IndexTony Fryis a director of the sustainment consultancy Team D/E/S and Adjunct Professor of Design, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art. He has taught and lectured internationally and is author ofRemakings: Ecology, Design, Philosophy,A New Design Philosophy: an Introduction to DefuturingandDesign Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice(Berg).

Design as Politicsdestroys our fantasies of 'sustainable design' and urges us to face our collective future. Read this before deciding whether you have the courage and conviction necessary to be a designer of the future. Lisa Norton, School of the Art Institute of Chicagolӧ