Teach-in
Proposals distributed at Changing the Change and New Views 2 conferences. For more information see here. To support this initiative email us.

EcoLabs collaborator Ali Hodgson was awarded the Design for our Future Selves award this week from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for her board game and associated book called: 'Endgame'.

Ecological Literacy
Part of the Solution

We have no alternative but to learn to live within the natural imperatives the ecosystem. How can design participate in this change? The primary tool in this transition is systems thinking, a conceptual process necessary for reconfiguration of systems that are presently entirely unsustainable. Design has the potential to communicate systems thinking and help embed new cognitive facilities into public consciousness. Design must embrace its ability to facilitate change by developing a vision of itself as a facilitator of transition using new methods, tools, and approaches. A new design paradigm is taking shape defined by both the democratization and the dematerialization of design processes. Thanks to the work of researchers in fields studying the interface between ecological systems and human culture we now have tools to catalyze systemic transformation. This paper will examine the ideas that will inform this transition in the design industry. Informed by design science, ecological literacy, footprinting tools and the transformation design model - design is now posed for a radical change. What this paper will bring that is new is an examination of the Transition movement as a model for social innovation.

The Transition movement is a community design initiative that facilitates re-localization for mitigation and adaptation to post-peak oil and climate change. The Transition phenomenon started in South West England in 2005 and has already gone viral. There are now (May 2008) 61 towns, cities or areas that have Transition initiatives active (with another 700+ in the process of adopting the method). A Transition Town is a space that has initiated a community design process mapping ‘energy descent’; a timetabled strategy for weaning the locality off fossil fuels. The Transition process creates agency and encourages practical action. The movement is a result of communities concerned with the lack of systemic plans comprehensive enough to respond to what they perceive as the threats ahead. Here communities organize to meet environmental challenges directly when government, business, and institutions fail to respond adequately to the challenges of climate change and peak oil. The movement as described in this paper is the vision of permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins, now completing a PhD at Plymouth University while nurturing the growing Transition Network, and his local group; Transition Town Totnes.

The Transition movement can also be seen as design activism - led by non-designers. The professional design community would be clever to take notice. This paper will map out a proposal for change, first by examining concepts, tools, and processes within design that address ecological problems. Part Two will focus on the Transition movement as a model that brings insights from nature - via permaculture, into community design processes. In Part Three, I will synthesize all this information into a proposal for transition in the design industry.