On February 3rd we add the seventh layer in our Regeneration stack with a conversation about Regenerative Design with Dr. Arturo Escobar in the context of his book, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Together with The RSA, we will co-host a conversation about the changing social role of design to navigate regenerative futures rather than further exacerbate intensive resource use and vast material destruction at the core of degenerative economies. By questioning the very nature of design and who is a “designer,” Escobar illuminates how refiguring design practices into “autonomous design” can lead to the creation of more just and sustainable social orders. His work and context are uniquely situated within the history of decolonial efforts of Latin American Indigenous peoples that recognize a plurality of responses suitable to the very localized contexts in which they emerge.
ARTURO ESCOBAR
Arturo Escobar is an activist-researcher from Cali, Colombia, working on territorial struggles against extractivism, postdevelopmentalist and post-capitalist transitions, and ontological design. He was professor of anthropology and political ecology at UNC, Chapel Hill, until 2018, and is currently affiliated with PhD Programs in Design and Creation (Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia) and in Environmental Sciences (Universidad del Valle, Cali). Over the past thirty years, he has worked closely with Afro-descendant, environmental and feminist organizations in Colombia. His most well-known book is Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (1995, 2nd Ed. 2011). His most recent books are: Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds (2018); Pluriversal Politics: The Real and the Possible (2020); and Designing Relationally: Making and Restor(y)ing Life, with Michal Osterweil and Kriti Sharma (forthcoming).
This New Works conversation is gratefully co-hosted in partnership with The RSA. The RSA (royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce) believes in a world where everyone is able to participate in creating a better future. Through our ideas, research and a 30,000 strong Fellowship we are a global community of proactive problem solvers. Uniting people and ideas to resolve the challenges of our time. Our Regenerative Futures programme aims to support people and communities to be at the heart of a flourishing future for all life on earth.
