The Nature of Design Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention

by Orr, David W.

• ISBN13: 9780195148558
• ISBN10: 019514855X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The environmental movement has often been accused of being overly negative--trying to stop "progress." The Nature of Design, on the other hand, is about starting things, specifically an ecological design revolution that changes how we provide food, shelter, energy, materials, and livelihood,and how we deal with waste. Ecological design is an emerging field that aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology. The book begins by describing the scope of design, comparing it to the Enlightenment of the 18th century. Subsequent chapters describe barriers to a design revolution inherent in our misuse of language, the clockspeed of technological society, and shortsighted politics. Orr goes on to describe thecritical role educational institutions might play in fostering design intelligence and what he calls "a higher order of heroism." Appropriately, the book ends on themes of charity, wilderness, and the rights of children. Astute yet broadly appealing, The Nature of Design combines theory, practicality, and a call to action.

Author Biography

David W. Orr is Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. He is the author of Ecological Literacy and Earth in Mind, as well as more than 100 published articles. Among other awards, he has received a Lyndhurst Prize Fellowship and the National Wildlife Federation's National Achievement Award.

Table of Contents

I. The Problem of Ecological Design
Introduction: The Design of Culture and the Culture of Design	3	(10)
Human Ecology as a Problem of Ecological Design	13	(22)
II. Pathologies and Barriers
Slow Knowledge	35	(8)
Speed	43	(10)
Verbicide	53	(8)
Technological Fundamentalism	61	(7)
Ideasclerosis	68	(7)
Ideasclerosis, Continued	75	(10)
III. The Politics of Design
None So Blind: The Problem of Ecological Denial (with David Ehrenfeld)	85	(6)
Twine in the Baler	91	(6)
Conservation and Conservatism	97	(7)
A Politics Worthy of the Name	104	(14)
The Limits of Nature and the Educational Nature of Limits	118	(9)
IV. Design as Pedagogy
Architecture and Education	127	(8)
The Architecture of Science	135	(8)
2020: A Proposal	143	(9)
Education, Careers, and Callings	152	(8)
A Higher Order of Heroism	160	(11)
V. Charity, Wildness, and Children
The Ecology of Giving and Consuming	171	(16)
The Great Wilderness Debate, Again	187	(11)
Loving Children: The Political Economy of Design	198	(23)
Bibliography	221	(12)
Index	233