further reading

T. Princen, M. Maniates, and K. Conca, Editors. Confronting Consumption, 2002, The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jackson, T., Consuming Paradise? Towards a Social and Cultural Psychology of Sustainable Consumption, in The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Consumption, T. Jackson, Editor. 2006, Earthscan: London.

Sunstein, C.R., Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. 2006, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Benkler, Y., The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. 2006, London: Yale University Press

references

page 120 chart showing the transition to a focus on the individual: Michael Maniates supports the notion that the focus within consumerism is on the individual, and further that there is pressure on individuals to use consumption as a solution to environmental problems (eg "buy recycled") in Confronting Consumption, T. Princen, M. Maniates, and K. Conca, Editors. 2002, The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.

in addition to note 37 supporting the idea of design as a skill that becomes more widespread, rather than being seen as a speciality: John M. Carroll discusses how HA Simon suggested that design should be a discipline that every liberally educated person masters. (6) Carroll, J.M., Dimensions of Participation in Simon's Design. Design Issues, 2006. 22(2): p. 3-18. Gui Bonsiepe echoes this idea, “design may become a basic discipline for all scientific areas” (28) Bonsiepe, G., Design and Democracy. Design Issues, 2006. 22(2): p. 27-34.

web links

The Lond Now Foundation on the Rosetta Disk

www.slowlab.net for the advancement of slow design thinking and practice

Slow Food International

www.sustainable-everyday.net/scenarios a project sponsored by the Politecnico in Milan to investigate sustainability in everyday life and the roles for design

new thinking

The intersection of design, participation and open source methods is an area of ongoing research for me, and I've recently gathered some links from colleagues on this topic.

part 5: Frontiers

new thinking

Central Debates:
recent discussions with architecture students seem to have added a new debate to the cental debates (Atlas pages 196-197). The new debate concerns the question of user involvement. How much should users be "engaged" in sustainable design. On the one hand, research suggests that developing and using skills is central to human well being--being physically in touch with technology and materials is important. On the other hand, the pressure to save time and still achieve the highest possible performance points towards "smart" technologies that do the thinking and acting for us. To what degree, and in what arenas, then, should users be expected engage with the technical matters of sustainable operations?