Abstract
Globally and locally a new culture of ‘sustainism’ is emerging: a shift in collective perspective towards a future that is more networked, community-driven and collaborative, as well as ecologically responsible. With it comes a new ethos for innovation, opening creative opportunities for ‘sustainist design,’ based on values such as sharing, connectedness, localism, and human scale, along with environmental sustainability. Together they recast how we design our technological solutions, our products, our cities and the places we live in. Welcome to the era of sustainism!
Biography – Michiel Schwarz
Michiel Schwarz is a Dutch cultural thinker, social design innovator and sociologist of the future, based in Amsterdam. He is best known for giving a name to the next cultural era, ‘sustainism’, which the New York Times called “a new ethos for design.” He developed the idea of ‘sustainist design’, advancing a design agenda and design practices that are sustainable both socially and environmentally.
He has worked as an independent researcher, curator and policy consultant on technological culture, design strategy, sustainable urbanism and the future. He holds a PhD from Imperial College in the sociology of technology. Under the banner of his ‘Sustainism Lab’, he currently develops cultural and civic projects on the future of sustainist culture, social design and urban heritage.
Recent books by Michiel Schwarz:
Sustainism is the New Modernism: A cultural manifesto for the sustainist era (with Joost Elffers; New York: DAP/Distributed Art Publishers, 2010), Sustainist Design Guide: How sharing, localism, connectedness and proportionality are creating a new agenda for social design (with Diana Krabbendam; Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, 2013), A Sustainist Lexicon: Seven entries to recast the future—Rethinking design and heritage (Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Press, 2016).