F E AT U R E D T I T L E S
Designs for the Pluriverse
Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds
arturo escobar
In Designs for the Pluriverse Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design
Arturo Escobar is Kenan Distinguished
theory and practice aimed at channeling design’s world-making capacity toward
Professor of Anthropology at the
ways of being and doing that are deeply attuned to justice and the Earth. Noting that most design—from consumer goods and digital technologies to built envi‑ ronments—currently serves capitalist ends, Escobar argues for the development
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes, also published by Duke University Press, and
of an “autonomous design” that eschews commercial and modernizing aims in
Encountering Development: The Making
favor of more collaborative and place-based approaches. Such design attends
and Unmaking of the Third World.
to questions of environment, experience, and politics while focusing on the pro‑ duction of human experience based on the radical interdependence of all beings. Mapping autonomous design’s principles to the history of decolonial efforts of indigenous and Afro-descended people in Latin America, Escobar shows how refiguring current design practices could lead to the creation of more just and sustainable social orders. NE W ECOLOGIES FOR THE T WENT Y-FIRST CENTURY A series edited by Arturo Escobar and Dianne Rocheleau
“In this impassioned call for design for the pluriverse, Arturo Escobar asks how we might translate insights of a relational ontology into politics of transformative change. He turns to the prospects of ‘transition,’ led by autonomous communities and social movements in Latin America and the global South. This remarkable book is a way forward for all who are yearning for the radical remaking of design, as a contribution to decolonizing and remaking worlds.” — LUCY SUCHMAN , author of Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions
“For so long, design researchers have been waiting for social researchers to take heed of the ontological politics of designing. Arturo Escobar does so but precisely to clear a space in global consumerist modernism for urgently needed alternatives. A by-product of this thorough and clear book will be the project of decolonizing the discipline and practice of design.”— CAMERON TONKINWISE , University of New South Wales Art and Design “In this exciting work Arturo Escobar steps out of the familiar territory we associate him with to engage with the cultural study of design. Significantly advancing thinking about societal transition in the context of climate change, Latin American politics, and the ongoing challenges of decoloniality, Designs for the Pluriverse makes a timely and important intervention.”— J. K. GIBSON-GR AHAM , coeditor of Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene
also by Arturo Escobar
Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes paper, $29.95 / £24.99 978-0-8223-4327-1 / 2008 Available as an e book
S O C I A L T H E O R Y/ L AT I N A M E R I C A N S T U D I E S / D E S I G N T H E O R Y
March 304 pages paper, 978‑0‑8223‑7105‑2, $26.95/£21.99 cloth, 978‑0‑8223‑7090‑1, $99.95/£83.00 Available as an e‑book
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