(Designing) Beyond the Modern

This is the first book to provide a dictionary of terms for design and design activism drawn from outside the Western tradition. Designing and World Making brings together design thinkers, designers and activists to provide short and accessible introductions to concepts from indigenous cultures, from anti-capitalist and environmental movements, and from the Global South. Terms such as Buen Vivir (Living Well) - an alternative to development involving a holistic conception of social life; Commons - ownership and governance of natural, knowledge-based, and technological resources that do not conform to the rules of capitalism and the state; Gambiarra - a Brazilian expression meaning to use improvised methods to solve a problem, with any available material to hand, or Mitakuye Oyasin - a Lakotan term involving a deeply relational view of life and an indigenous theory of radical interdependence. The book offers a new and truly global vocabulary for thinking, designing, and action, one that is attuned to concerns for social justice and the sustainable future of our planet.

Product details

• Authors: Eduardo Staszowski, Virginia Tassinari
• Assisted by: Clive Dilnot (Editor), Eduardo Staszowski (Editor), Virginia Tassinari (Editor), Tassinari Virginia (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 08.01.2026
• EAN: 9781350164390
• ISBN: 978-1-350-16439-0
• No. of pages: 208
• Series: Beyond the Modern
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Interior design, design; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, DESIGN / General, DESIGN / History & Criticism, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Art & design styles: from c 1960, Design, Industrial and commercial arts, illustration