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How can design shine a light on humanity''s relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants, now and in the future? Design Beyond the Human is a collection of essays by international scholars, designers and engaged citizens traversing activism, anthropology, conservation, creative writing, design practice, design theory, economics, education, environmental humanities, ethics, history, indigenous knowledge, law, philosophy, poetry, politics, regenerative agriculture, science, sociology and technology. Divided into three sections - We Are Not Alone , Design Beyond the Human , and Mediating Human-Non-Human Relations Through Design - the text generates an interdisciplinary conversation capable of thinking about life on planet Earth, challenging the Anglo-European anthropocentric conceptualisation of design that dominates practice, education, and academic discourse. Each section is unique: charting the transdisciplinary cultural perspective that is required to comprehend our predicament, the critique of human-centred design and its interdependence with capitalism, and the nascent design practices and projects that are attempting to reconcile humanity''s possible relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants. The book offers the reader an opportunity to engage with expertise, knowledge, methodologies and lived experiences from across disciplines shaped by shared concerns and provides an opportunity to question if design in a more than human way might reimagine design''s relationship to capitalism and contemporary lifestyles. Will our planetary future be merely an ecologically aware version of today, or, in going beyond the human , might we develop a transdisciplinary perspective capable of imagining an alternative vision of life on Earth?
