Abstract
Human sustainability appears increasingly urgent, yet society’s response is utterly inadequate. The challenges are not only sustainability’s complexity, owing to its ubiquitous systemic interdependences and interconnectedness, but also the recognition of these complex systems by each human individual as well as by the entire human society. According to evolutionary psychology theory, humans are suffering from a blind spot, caused by evolutionary inertia, which is masking distant/indirect/invisible interconnections. Our default “fight-or-flight” response to immediate threats and making shortsighted decisions promptly to satisfy our direct natural needs has become very incompatible with our survival in today’s completely altered circumstances. We must acquire a new sensitivity, to see and think in a holistic way, leading to different decisions and actions. Systems thinking, which pays more attention to interdependence than independence, can contribute to establishing this new sensitivity to compensate our cognitive blind spot. This cognition is critically required at a common scale, in order to produce lasting changes in our social and public establishments, via multiple levels, actors and structures. Humanity needs a joint culture of sustainability to make the next step in evolution. Design is the foundation of all human activities and every design defines interactions between Human and Natural systems. This creates an opportunity, where design for sustainability can drive a wave of innovations. We need a different breed of designers, so to generate new, collective design communities, to present and perceive sustainability as an inevitable (but benefitting) requirement of design and human life. Densely populated urban scenarios of human society represent the extreme of the human system. Rendering design positive to the environment in the urban context will make a significant and far-reaching contribution to saving our species and civilization.
This chapter was developed upon the authors’ paper “Building up a Mindset of Design for Sustainability” in the Cumulus Conference Proceedings Wuxi 2018 Diffused Transition & Design Opportunities.
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Zhu, X., Leuba dit Galland, P. (2022). Thinking in Systems: Sustainability Cognition for Design Communities. In: Giorgi, E., Cattaneo, T., Flores Herrera, A.M., Aceves Tarango, V.d.S. (eds) Design for Vulnerable Communities. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96866-3_6
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