CHOOSING BREAKDOWN OR BREAKTHROUGH
DESIGN AND THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION :

The paper addresses some central questions about the societal role of design in the 21st century: Can design contribute to the prevention of social, ecological, and economic collapse?  Is it possible to learn how to creatively ‘dance’ with the complex dynamics of social and ecological transformation despite their fundamental unpredictability and uncontrollability?  How do we design appropriately within chaotic and interconnected processes poised between order and disorder?  What role can design, as the expression of intentionality through interactions and relationships, play in shaping a globally sustainable human civilization?

The founder of the Club of Budapest, Prof. Erwin Laszlo has recently suggested that the dynamics of the complex ecological and social systems in which we participate are approaching a ‘chaos point’ after which human civilization will either move towards eco-social breakdown or towards a fundamental global transformation and the breakthrough towards a sustainable civilization (Laszlo, 2006).  What role can design play in choosing breakthrough rather than breakdown?

The reintegration of social and ecological dynamics in order to maintain a dynamic balance between order and disorder that allows for the emergence of adaptive novelty is central to design for sustainability.  Orr (2002, p.50) argues: “The very idea that we need to build a sustainable civilization needs to be invented or rediscovered, then widely disseminated, and put into practice quickly.”  Design plays an important role in this, both in the material dimensions of product design, architecture, industrial design, and town and regional planning, as well as in the immaterial dimension of the metadesign of interactions, concepts, and value systems from which a new worldview can emerge (Wahl, 2006a).

This paper explores these questions within the context of chaos theory (Peat & Briggs, 1999), complexity theory (Reason & Goodwin, 1999), and dynamic systems theory (Meadows, 2001), as well as recent PhD research at the University of Dundee, Scotland (Wahl, 2006b).

References

Briggs, J. & Peat, D.F. (1999) Seven Life Lessons of Chaos: Timeless Wisdom from the Science of Change, HaperCollins, New York.

Laszlo, E. (2006) The Chaos Point – The World at the Crossroads Piatkus Books: London

Meadows, D. (2001) ‘Dancing with Systems – What to do when systems resist change’ Whole Earth Review, Winter 2001.

Orr, D.W. (2002) The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Reason, P. & Goodwin, B. (1999) ‘Towards a Science of Quality in Organisations’ Concepts and Transformation, Vol.4, No.3, pp.282-317.

Wahl, D.C. (2006a) ‘Bionics vs. biomimicry: from control of nature to sustainable participation in nature’, Wessex Institute of Technology Proceedings on Ecology and the Environment Vol. 87, Design & Nature III, WIT Press: Southampton, pp.289-298.

Wahl, D.C. (2006b) Design for Human and Planetary Health: A Holistic Integral Approach to Complexity and Sustainability, PhD awarded at University of Dundee, Scotland (awaiting publication).