Designs for the Pluriverse
Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice aimed at channeling design's world-making capacity toward ways of being and doing that are deeply attuned to justice and the Earth.
In three parts, Escobar sets out a vision for both how “design” is currently growing a field of criticism, can be extracted from the current development/capitalist hegemony of modern life, and be used to create ontologies for convivial and relation ways of living.
In the introduction, Escobar lays out his arguments and overviews for each section, skipping lightly through some incredibly rich and dense material full of references to prior thinkers as far back as the 70s. My core takeaway, which is already getting gears turning by page ten is that in order to survive, we need an ethic that designs for limits. We need to understand capacity and plan for it. When it comes to software for the internet, this is a radical idea indeed.
Why I think software is an important lens to be reading with is that a Escobar calls out that communities ability to enact autonomy and imagine different ways of living is intensely mediated by techno-economic structures. My question becomes how can we create smaller, less strangling structures? How can we systemically change the hyper-structure of the web to embrace limits and relational ways of living?
Specifically, Escobar asks:
can design be extricated from … modernist unsustainable and defuturing practices … could design become part of the tool kit toward the pluriverse? What would that imply?