What do you think?
Rate this book
New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century
Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds
In Designs for the Pluriverse Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice aimed at channeling design's world-making capacity toward ways of being and doing that are deeply attuned to justice and the Earth. Noting that most design—from consumer goods and digital technologies to built environments—currently serves capitalist ends, Escobar argues for the development of an “autonomous design” that eschews commercial and modernizing aims in favor of more collaborative and placed-based approaches. Such design attends to questions of environment, experience, and politics while focusing on the production of human experience based on the radical interdependence of all beings. Mapping autonomous design’s principles to the history of decolonial efforts of indigenous and Afro-descended people in Latin America, Escobar shows how refiguring current design practices could lead to the creation of more just and sustainable social orders.
312 pages, Hardcover
Published March 22, 2018
173 people are currently reading
2306 people want to read
About the author
Arturo Escobar
58 books80 followersArturo Escobar is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His most recent book is Territories of Difference.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 30 reviews
July 24, 2018
Even if I didn't understand every single sentence in this book, I have still given Arturo Escobar 5 stars for this text if for no other reason than the incredibly wide scope and intricate depth of knowledge that was clearly demonstrated throughout Designs for the Pluriverse .
This is by no means an easy-entry, introductory text and I certainly struggled to grasp some of the complex concepts being described. I am used to short and sharp paragraphs that don't beat around the bush - and I like this style in academic writing when it's well executed because it makes some complicated ideas a lot more accessible a lower-level reader like myself. However, I was enraptured by Escobar's lyrical writing style - something rarely seen in academic literature. While at first I thought the long quotations of song and poetry were self-indulgent and a result of bad editing, I quickly came to realise that the form of writing was essential in reflecting the message of the content.
Escobar dismantles the Cartesian approach to world design, criticising Cartesian rationality and belief in an objective external world as destroyers of communal and place-based forms of relating. He quotes Greene: "Ecological civilisation is not something to be arrived at, but something ever to be created." Design for a post-carbon world must breathe in the full richness and complexity of human life, a concept which cannot be contained in the rigidity of most academic writing.
It was also satisfying to see not only a dismantlement of the current approaches to world design but also tangible alternatives proposed as a way of embracing the world's "pluriverse" reality. Escobar's 'Transition Imagination Exercise for the Cauca Valley Region in Colombia' in Chapter 6 took a specific, current case of where a multiplicity of narratives (postcolonial, feminist..) had been subjected to erasure by homogenous development discourse and posited a way of transition which would integrate local and relational epistemologies into a sustainable ecological future.
In brief, for a book that tackles such a meta topic, Escobar has delivered a beautifully crafted text that reflects the multifaceted nature of our pluriverse and lays the foundation for those seeking to implement visions of a sustainable ecological future that respects the agency of place.
This is by no means an easy-entry, introductory text and I certainly struggled to grasp some of the complex concepts being described. I am used to short and sharp paragraphs that don't beat around the bush - and I like this style in academic writing when it's well executed because it makes some complicated ideas a lot more accessible a lower-level reader like myself. However, I was enraptured by Escobar's lyrical writing style - something rarely seen in academic literature. While at first I thought the long quotations of song and poetry were self-indulgent and a result of bad editing, I quickly came to realise that the form of writing was essential in reflecting the message of the content.
Escobar dismantles the Cartesian approach to world design, criticising Cartesian rationality and belief in an objective external world as destroyers of communal and place-based forms of relating. He quotes Greene: "Ecological civilisation is not something to be arrived at, but something ever to be created." Design for a post-carbon world must breathe in the full richness and complexity of human life, a concept which cannot be contained in the rigidity of most academic writing.
It was also satisfying to see not only a dismantlement of the current approaches to world design but also tangible alternatives proposed as a way of embracing the world's "pluriverse" reality. Escobar's 'Transition Imagination Exercise for the Cauca Valley Region in Colombia' in Chapter 6 took a specific, current case of where a multiplicity of narratives (postcolonial, feminist..) had been subjected to erasure by homogenous development discourse and posited a way of transition which would integrate local and relational epistemologies into a sustainable ecological future.
In brief, for a book that tackles such a meta topic, Escobar has delivered a beautifully crafted text that reflects the multifaceted nature of our pluriverse and lays the foundation for those seeking to implement visions of a sustainable ecological future that respects the agency of place.
March 19, 2023
Arturo Escobar’s ‘Designs for the Pluriverse’ is, in many ways, a frustrating book. Mostly this has to do with the difficulty of the subject. I don’t mean difficulty in that it is difficult to understand, but rather that Escobar is trying to hypothesize and describe a type of design that doesn’t really exist yet, except in fragmentary pieces and hazy potentialities. Thus, the book has the feel of stumbling in the dark on an alien world. There are few placeholder examples from which to orient. A handful of degrowth collectives, a bit more about Columbian movements, but not much else that is concrete. Most of the book is really critical theory, more about what this nebulous future design is trying to escape from rather than what it might be. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a worthwhile effort by the author. It’s just that he is trying to bring something into existence that is only partially here, and that is a very difficult task.
The task is doubly difficult because he is seeking a way out of the near monoculture of modernity into a pluralistic set of worlds and imaginaries. But the grip of modernity is strong. Capitalism and its attendant systems have a choke hold on our world, and any other ways of being are essentially unimaginable. Yet, Escobar tries to imagine these possibilities. He draws upon a broad range of literature and theory, much of it familiar but much also less well known and by a very diverse set of authors. I’m sure it would be enlightening to read the works in this bibliography. Nevertheless, it is clear that the works that Escobar draws upon are themselves struggling with veil of modernity.
Reading this book is worth it if you are willing to grapple with the hidden and oppressed state of the concepts that Escobar describes.
The task is doubly difficult because he is seeking a way out of the near monoculture of modernity into a pluralistic set of worlds and imaginaries. But the grip of modernity is strong. Capitalism and its attendant systems have a choke hold on our world, and any other ways of being are essentially unimaginable. Yet, Escobar tries to imagine these possibilities. He draws upon a broad range of literature and theory, much of it familiar but much also less well known and by a very diverse set of authors. I’m sure it would be enlightening to read the works in this bibliography. Nevertheless, it is clear that the works that Escobar draws upon are themselves struggling with veil of modernity.
Reading this book is worth it if you are willing to grapple with the hidden and oppressed state of the concepts that Escobar describes.
January 5, 2020
This book is a worthwhile read for the satisfying layout if not the helpful content. Escobar draws you through the current context of design, through changes that could be made, and what currently being developed in a manner that is at times dense, but that tends to come with an analysis of design.
I primarily read this through the lens of someone interested in sustainability, in the broader sense, not only environmental. I was curious how one could apply (at then unknown) proinciples to building and/or sustaining of technology (I’m a software engineer by day), communities, relationships, etc. With this in mind, I found the most following ideas salient.
- “The more tradition is weakened, the more subjects must learn to design their own lives…”
o As a millenial this resonated with me given the popular writing about how we are “killing” industries. We are simply finding our own ways to navigate the world, some to the detriment of it.
- “Questions of class, gender, race, and coloniality are notoriously absent from design theory and practice, and so is that of design’s dependence on capitalism.”
o Previously, design would have not taken into account the inclusion of divergent opinions, but now they are more needed than ever to sustain capitalism. There are a couple of strategies I observe at work here- the ergonomic neutralization of design (e.g. Apple products) and, alternatively, personalization (style personalization services like Stitch Fix). Companies increasingly make their product fit everyone, or only one. (There is more to speak on here.)
- “We create reality by participation and action.”
o Exactly what it says. Since I read this at the start of 2020, I have resolutions on my mind, so it is also a call to action and increase physical engagement with the world. Being digitally distant is simply not enough.
I primarily read this through the lens of someone interested in sustainability, in the broader sense, not only environmental. I was curious how one could apply (at then unknown) proinciples to building and/or sustaining of technology (I’m a software engineer by day), communities, relationships, etc. With this in mind, I found the most following ideas salient.
- “The more tradition is weakened, the more subjects must learn to design their own lives…”
o As a millenial this resonated with me given the popular writing about how we are “killing” industries. We are simply finding our own ways to navigate the world, some to the detriment of it.
- “Questions of class, gender, race, and coloniality are notoriously absent from design theory and practice, and so is that of design’s dependence on capitalism.”
o Previously, design would have not taken into account the inclusion of divergent opinions, but now they are more needed than ever to sustain capitalism. There are a couple of strategies I observe at work here- the ergonomic neutralization of design (e.g. Apple products) and, alternatively, personalization (style personalization services like Stitch Fix). Companies increasingly make their product fit everyone, or only one. (There is more to speak on here.)
- “We create reality by participation and action.”
o Exactly what it says. Since I read this at the start of 2020, I have resolutions on my mind, so it is also a call to action and increase physical engagement with the world. Being digitally distant is simply not enough.
December 28, 2021
If your work brings you in contact with technology or design, I highly highly recommend this book.
I've been involved in a lot of community and political projects over the years as a tech worker, and this book has offered an expansive kind of ethical foundation that I always felt lacking. It's a brilliant marriage of poetic liberatory visions for our future(s), along with earnest pragmatic study of what's possible in design processes.
It's a clearly structured series of political-philosophic arguments with thorough citations, references, index, and notes. Aside from some obscure words here and there, it's easy-to-read conversational prose, with song lyrics, cultural references, poetry and inspiring quotes throughout (many presented in Spanish and translated into English).
It weaves together hundreds of old & new frameworks from social justice, decolonial, and ecological movements as it proposes a compelling and earnest intervention against modernity's project of technocratic patriarchal capitalist destruction, with several potential escape routes, several case studies, and some rubrics and models for practical applications.
My copy of the book is heavily dog-eared and covered in highlighters circling so many richly imaginative, nourishing, and hope-giving passages. It's a book that opens doors. I cannot over-hype this text!
I've been involved in a lot of community and political projects over the years as a tech worker, and this book has offered an expansive kind of ethical foundation that I always felt lacking. It's a brilliant marriage of poetic liberatory visions for our future(s), along with earnest pragmatic study of what's possible in design processes.
It's a clearly structured series of political-philosophic arguments with thorough citations, references, index, and notes. Aside from some obscure words here and there, it's easy-to-read conversational prose, with song lyrics, cultural references, poetry and inspiring quotes throughout (many presented in Spanish and translated into English).
It weaves together hundreds of old & new frameworks from social justice, decolonial, and ecological movements as it proposes a compelling and earnest intervention against modernity's project of technocratic patriarchal capitalist destruction, with several potential escape routes, several case studies, and some rubrics and models for practical applications.
My copy of the book is heavily dog-eared and covered in highlighters circling so many richly imaginative, nourishing, and hope-giving passages. It's a book that opens doors. I cannot over-hype this text!
April 1, 2022
I sincerely hated every minute of this book, but it’s for a book club at work and we get to go out for lunch to discuss. And I cannot stress enough how much I love the folks in my group 🤗 (FYI content was great, delivery was a major eye roll).
November 29, 2023
3.5
TO FREEDOMMMMM!!!!!!
TO FREEDOMMMMM!!!!!!
February 15, 2022
Could have chilled the ideological rhetoric here and there, still really good though
August 2, 2020
A bit more philosophical and metaphysical than “Whose Global Village”, emphasizing the idea of radical interdependence (rather than dualist and/or individualist views) and designing for “A world where many worlds fit”. I liked that the author builds a lot on the ideas of south-american academics, indigneous and afrodescent people, which I did mostly not know of before.
The author discusses the problems of a one-world world, in which only one way of knowing and ontology is accepted: That of western science – which then serves as foundation for instrumental changes and designs.
The designs for the pluriverse which the the author has in mind is different than the common understanding of the term today, which is very modernist and expert driven. It could rather be understood as planning and iterating in a community-based way, focused on a negociated/negociatable outcome.
People who like Varela, Ingold or Whitehead will find quite some familiar ideas.
The author discusses the problems of a one-world world, in which only one way of knowing and ontology is accepted: That of western science – which then serves as foundation for instrumental changes and designs.
The designs for the pluriverse which the the author has in mind is different than the common understanding of the term today, which is very modernist and expert driven. It could rather be understood as planning and iterating in a community-based way, focused on a negociated/negociatable outcome.
People who like Varela, Ingold or Whitehead will find quite some familiar ideas.
March 21, 2024
The only thing I know to say about this book is that it taught me at 18 years old how to hope and why to fight for the more beautiful world which our hearts know is possible.
April 25, 2025
4.5
All'inizio della lettura non ero molto convinta dell'originalità di questo testo, ma andando avanti mi sono resa conto del lavoro magistrale compiuto da Escobar.
Il testo è un’opera collettiva che propone una critica radicale al paradigma dominante dello sviluppo economico e sociale di matrice occidentale. Il volume raccoglie moltissime voci di studiosi, attivisti, leader indigeni e intellettuali, offrendo un ampio spettro di pratiche alternative al modello neoliberale, estrattivista e monoculturale imposto a livello globale.
Il termine “pluriverso”, ispirato al motto zapatista “un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos”, indica infatti una prospettiva che riconosce la coesistenza di molteplici visioni del mondo. In contrapposizione alla logica univoca del progresso lineare e della modernità eurocentrica, il volume articola una serie di proposte che valorizzano la diversità culturale, ecologica, epistemica e politica.
Tra i concetti centrali legati alle conoscenze indigene ci sono il Buen Vivir (dall’America Latina), l'Ubuntu (dall'Africa subsahariana), la decrescita, l’ecologia relazionale, la sovranità alimentare, i femminismi decoloniali e le pratiche dei beni comuni. Tutti questi sono modi di pensare che vogliono "decolonizzare l'immaginario" e trovare soluzioni locali e sostenibili per il benessere.
Il Pluriverso è come un dizionario politico-filosofico, ma anche uno strumento pratico e militante: non è solo una riflessione teorica, ma un invito a cambiare i nostri sistemi economici e sociali, partendo dalle pratiche che nascono nei territori, nelle relazioni e nelle comunità. ✊🌱
All'inizio della lettura non ero molto convinta dell'originalità di questo testo, ma andando avanti mi sono resa conto del lavoro magistrale compiuto da Escobar.
Il testo è un’opera collettiva che propone una critica radicale al paradigma dominante dello sviluppo economico e sociale di matrice occidentale. Il volume raccoglie moltissime voci di studiosi, attivisti, leader indigeni e intellettuali, offrendo un ampio spettro di pratiche alternative al modello neoliberale, estrattivista e monoculturale imposto a livello globale.
Il termine “pluriverso”, ispirato al motto zapatista “un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos”, indica infatti una prospettiva che riconosce la coesistenza di molteplici visioni del mondo. In contrapposizione alla logica univoca del progresso lineare e della modernità eurocentrica, il volume articola una serie di proposte che valorizzano la diversità culturale, ecologica, epistemica e politica.
Tra i concetti centrali legati alle conoscenze indigene ci sono il Buen Vivir (dall’America Latina), l'Ubuntu (dall'Africa subsahariana), la decrescita, l’ecologia relazionale, la sovranità alimentare, i femminismi decoloniali e le pratiche dei beni comuni. Tutti questi sono modi di pensare che vogliono "decolonizzare l'immaginario" e trovare soluzioni locali e sostenibili per il benessere.
Il Pluriverso è come un dizionario politico-filosofico, ma anche uno strumento pratico e militante: non è solo una riflessione teorica, ma un invito a cambiare i nostri sistemi economici e sociali, partendo dalle pratiche che nascono nei territori, nelle relazioni e nelle comunità. ✊🌱
December 22, 2025
Building on Bruno Latour’s Actor–Network Theory, Arturo Escobar argues that reality is composed of networks of relations and interdependencies. No entity, human or non-human, exists independently. In simple terms, beings are relations before they are things: “Nothing preexists the relations that constitute it.”
Escobar critiques the modern One-World World (OWW), which assumes that we all inhabit a single world, structured by one underlying reality (one nature) and multiple cultures.
Design is not neutral within this framework. When it remains anthropocentric and grounded in modern dualisms, design actively reproduces this singular world and contributes to ecological and social crises.
For Escobar, design is fundamentally a practice of world-making, not merely object-making. He calls for Designs for the Pluriverse, which is design approaches that support multiple worlds, grounded in radical interdependence, autonomy, and place-based relations among humans, non-humans, environments, and infrastructures.
As he argues, "Design is ontological in that all design-led objects, tools, and even services bring about particular ways of being, knowing, and doing."
Escobar critiques the modern One-World World (OWW), which assumes that we all inhabit a single world, structured by one underlying reality (one nature) and multiple cultures.
Design is not neutral within this framework. When it remains anthropocentric and grounded in modern dualisms, design actively reproduces this singular world and contributes to ecological and social crises.
For Escobar, design is fundamentally a practice of world-making, not merely object-making. He calls for Designs for the Pluriverse, which is design approaches that support multiple worlds, grounded in radical interdependence, autonomy, and place-based relations among humans, non-humans, environments, and infrastructures.
As he argues, "Design is ontological in that all design-led objects, tools, and even services bring about particular ways of being, knowing, and doing."
October 4, 2021
This book has a quite nice definition of "ontology" as the author uses the term, on page 92 of the paperback edition. If I had been his editor I might perhaps have referred to this definition on the book cover, since, although the term is mentioned once by a reviewer, and may have entered into the shared language of academics, it is nothing like what the unabridged Websters makes of it.
The book is full of neologisms, which are frustrating because you can't look them up. Occasionally this extends to simple bad grammar, which I blame on the editor, and do not mention out of hostile intent.
The book is very well worth reading. I want to help build the future too.
The book is full of neologisms, which are frustrating because you can't look them up. Occasionally this extends to simple bad grammar, which I blame on the editor, and do not mention out of hostile intent.
The book is very well worth reading. I want to help build the future too.
November 2, 2022
Arturo Escobar thinks of the earth from its heart. The professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina is critical of development strategies whose outcome is not only the abuse of earth (such as monocultures replacing biological diversity), but also the displacement of indigenous populations and thus the destruction of its communities and culture.
In this brilliant book "Designs for the Pluriverse" Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice that is deeply attuned to justice and the earth. In short: A design theory that enables us to live with this planet – not against it.
In this brilliant book "Designs for the Pluriverse" Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice that is deeply attuned to justice and the earth. In short: A design theory that enables us to live with this planet – not against it.
September 16, 2022
Arturo Escobar's constructive and thought provoking book for rethinking design ontologically, which itself has changed my thoughts/world ontologically.
Transition design needs to deepen its critique of capitalism and liberalism and its awareness of the ways in which it still shelters modernist commitments such as belief in the individual, anthropocentrism, and reliance on political processes that depend, by their very nature, on the ontology of subjects and objects. Northern transition design visions need to think decolonially and postdevelopmentally.
Transition design needs to deepen its critique of capitalism and liberalism and its awareness of the ways in which it still shelters modernist commitments such as belief in the individual, anthropocentrism, and reliance on political processes that depend, by their very nature, on the ontology of subjects and objects. Northern transition design visions need to think decolonially and postdevelopmentally.
October 26, 2024
A cornerstone for any participatory initiative
The book challenges conventional Western design thinking by advocating for a fundamentally different approach to design that embraces multiple ways of being in the world - what Escobar calls the "pluriverse." Drawing from decolonial theory and Latin American thought, Escobar argues that design should move beyond serving market-driven modernization to instead support the creation of multiple worlds and ways of living.
The book challenges conventional Western design thinking by advocating for a fundamentally different approach to design that embraces multiple ways of being in the world - what Escobar calls the "pluriverse." Drawing from decolonial theory and Latin American thought, Escobar argues that design should move beyond serving market-driven modernization to instead support the creation of multiple worlds and ways of living.
September 11, 2022
While the writing style is academic and jargon-y and a bit long-winded, I appreciated reading this critical take on design as an extension of patriarchal, colonialist, capitalistic modernism, and the possibilities of other worlds in the "Pluriverse" he shares, inspired by Latin American feminists and indigenous resistance movements.
November 15, 2019
buku keren,cocok untuk pegiat LSM
April 22, 2020
A wonderful read for designing a new way forward.
August 13, 2020
Examines unorthodox ideas through a practical lens
April 23, 2021
A must read for those looking to acquire a new language for life on this planet.
May 7, 2021
This books has fundamentally changed the course of my thinking.
Read
May 8, 2023era para el tfg obviamente así que no comentamos
May 17, 2023
Excellent book!
August 22, 2023
Not easy to comprehend but good concepts discussed.
February 20, 2024
I had high hopes, but this book offers more than it delivers. A triumph of circular assertions.
October 1, 2025
Reading this book is like seeing the matrix for the first time.
December 10, 2025
I haven't read Escobar since the early 90s when he was part of the anti-globalisation movement. Several decades later the movement has reincarnated into design. I have to hand it to Escobar, it's genius, re-appropriating the term after development has left a bad taste and Marxism just doesn't allow for ecology or climate change in its concept. So, design it is.
Design, I much prefer their Spanish term Disoñar (combo of diseñar to design and soñar to dream, to refer to a shift in perspective that is (take a breath now):
1. anti-modern
2. anti-capitalist
3. anti-judeo Christian
4. anti-development
5. feminist/matriarchal
6. ecological approach with acknowledgement of climate change
7. anti-colonial
8. anti-extractivism
9. anti-Cartesian dualist perspective
10. sustainable (but he shuns this word and the green economy because it has been appropriated in the capitalist setting, agree)
Did I forget anything? (underline the terms you read) if you are looking for a term that can encapsulate all these, pluriverse it is. you can follow the current trend and use the term and be in the know. my book club member remarked that the pluriverse simply means diversity, but let's move on.
This book speaks to fellow academics and is reflected in the language and writing. it is dense but doable. I started with the preface and the introduction and you get a sense of where the book is going. but I was too curious and skipped to the end, chapter 6 and 5 to check out the real life applications of the design concepts that he is talking about. you might be disappointed because there is no actual concrete project explained. you would have to find out for yourself because the utopia is not revealed to us. what does this anti-capitalist economy and community look like? we don't know. that's not important enough it seems.
the focus is on how to create a course on design for the pluriverse and this is where the book shines. the first three chapters is all about a review of literature in the field of design and the anthropology of design and design anthropology. it is solid and good. (I might add a star and this becomes a three star rating). the fourth is a potential syllabi that you can make of a progressive movement in anthropology or design or both.
You might get a sense of my saucy review. I am not the audience for this, not because, some of these ideas do not have merit. Perhaps they are not new but dressed up to be new. not even conceptually. so maybe it might impress young people or people who have never heard of anthropology or design.
their work is situated in the Latin American context specifically among the indigenous groups located in a specific location that has been the target of resource extraction. given their historical experience, it is but right that he rails against it. as I said, very specific. my problem is when you start applying it oh let's say the urban place (I don't mean urban planning), much of the residents might suffer. and I am not sure what he means by the matriarchs are going to save us (just because he was assuming we are already in a patriarchal society), but is another burden solely reliant on free women's labour to organise, without the men? anyway, they are discounting a swath of populations who, without any anchor, will just have to self loathe. it's not a concept I necessarily agree to. in fact, I'm sure the western civilization and progress cannot be separated from the good and just as demanded by Judeo-Christian tenets. the separation leads to what we now see as hyper capitalism that ends in its own destruction. I am not burning the ground down as he suggests. rather I am rebuilding what is being ignored in western civilization.
I do agree that design for the social good has been at the forefront for decades now. can a practice truly be liberated from the market? can it exist in the government offices building us ugly buildings? can an autonomous community emerge in this dense urban jungle? I'm more interested in this conversation.
anthropology is more than applied work. this book has convinced me that our authority rests on much of theory but without ethnography (ethnography as design?!) I don't know what anthropology is.
(truly I'm just inspired by the snarky movie The Roses starring Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch which I viewed tonight).
Design, I much prefer their Spanish term Disoñar (combo of diseñar to design and soñar to dream, to refer to a shift in perspective that is (take a breath now):
1. anti-modern
2. anti-capitalist
3. anti-judeo Christian
4. anti-development
5. feminist/matriarchal
6. ecological approach with acknowledgement of climate change
7. anti-colonial
8. anti-extractivism
9. anti-Cartesian dualist perspective
10. sustainable (but he shuns this word and the green economy because it has been appropriated in the capitalist setting, agree)
Did I forget anything? (underline the terms you read) if you are looking for a term that can encapsulate all these, pluriverse it is. you can follow the current trend and use the term and be in the know. my book club member remarked that the pluriverse simply means diversity, but let's move on.
This book speaks to fellow academics and is reflected in the language and writing. it is dense but doable. I started with the preface and the introduction and you get a sense of where the book is going. but I was too curious and skipped to the end, chapter 6 and 5 to check out the real life applications of the design concepts that he is talking about. you might be disappointed because there is no actual concrete project explained. you would have to find out for yourself because the utopia is not revealed to us. what does this anti-capitalist economy and community look like? we don't know. that's not important enough it seems.
the focus is on how to create a course on design for the pluriverse and this is where the book shines. the first three chapters is all about a review of literature in the field of design and the anthropology of design and design anthropology. it is solid and good. (I might add a star and this becomes a three star rating). the fourth is a potential syllabi that you can make of a progressive movement in anthropology or design or both.
You might get a sense of my saucy review. I am not the audience for this, not because, some of these ideas do not have merit. Perhaps they are not new but dressed up to be new. not even conceptually. so maybe it might impress young people or people who have never heard of anthropology or design.
their work is situated in the Latin American context specifically among the indigenous groups located in a specific location that has been the target of resource extraction. given their historical experience, it is but right that he rails against it. as I said, very specific. my problem is when you start applying it oh let's say the urban place (I don't mean urban planning), much of the residents might suffer. and I am not sure what he means by the matriarchs are going to save us (just because he was assuming we are already in a patriarchal society), but is another burden solely reliant on free women's labour to organise, without the men? anyway, they are discounting a swath of populations who, without any anchor, will just have to self loathe. it's not a concept I necessarily agree to. in fact, I'm sure the western civilization and progress cannot be separated from the good and just as demanded by Judeo-Christian tenets. the separation leads to what we now see as hyper capitalism that ends in its own destruction. I am not burning the ground down as he suggests. rather I am rebuilding what is being ignored in western civilization.
I do agree that design for the social good has been at the forefront for decades now. can a practice truly be liberated from the market? can it exist in the government offices building us ugly buildings? can an autonomous community emerge in this dense urban jungle? I'm more interested in this conversation.
anthropology is more than applied work. this book has convinced me that our authority rests on much of theory but without ethnography (ethnography as design?!) I don't know what anthropology is.
(truly I'm just inspired by the snarky movie The Roses starring Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch which I viewed tonight).
June 17, 2024
Escobar takes a strong anti-capitalist position, using interdisciplinary and pluriversal arguments to critique both the hegemonic dominance of neoliberal capitalism and the ecological violence it rationalises. Escobar argues that every facet of society is designed — i.e. intentionally constructed through discourses of power — and much of this design is modelled after the dominant epistemologies of neoliberal capitalism, Eurocentrism, technocratism and non-dualism.
Escobar critiques modernity, and uses critical theories (like postmodern, feminist, and Marxist theories) to make the ontological argument that the pluriverse is relational and dualist. Design praxis must hence incorporate a plurality of ideologies to not just serve people better, but to critically intervene in the climate crisis — focusing on an ecological perspective, he calls unhindered capitalism a ‘defuturing’ of nature. He further reflexively identifies himself as a citizen of the developing world, interested in centering regional ways of knowing. Escobar notes that ontology emphasises both the power relations shaping epistemology, and the interrelations between societies. These ecological, regional, and relational theories inform his critique of capitalism.
Escobar theorises ways to reverse the dominant epistemologies upheld through the depoliticisation of design as a field. He notes how the constructed binaries of nature/culture, socio political hierarchies, and fundamentally unsustainable consumerism are left uncritiqued within the field20. Political ecology conversely repoliticises design, addressing these very issues. Escobar is critical of depoliticised technocratic solutions, which try to fix ecological destruction through slightly different types of ecological destruction: for example, using carbon capture to curb global warming, and in the process burying carbon into the ground using intensive and problematic chemicals. Not all of Escobar’s ideas are fully developed. He purports the decentralisation of power, citing examples of localised city planning and activism, however he does not develop this plan any further and it is unclear if he thinks decentralisation would be an effective design in fields beyond these examples. Ecological destruction for one, poses a global problem that transcends the construction of nations and regions. Once a(n achingly slow) decision has been made, it might be most effective to enact it on a global level. For Escobar however to meaningfully affect the climate crisis, modernity will have to be taken apart entirely — the radicality of this idea, he fears however, disincentives modernists from changing course21. Most alternate worlds however, have experienced significant threats at the hands of modernist, capitalist and non dualist proponents.
Escobar critiques modernity, and uses critical theories (like postmodern, feminist, and Marxist theories) to make the ontological argument that the pluriverse is relational and dualist. Design praxis must hence incorporate a plurality of ideologies to not just serve people better, but to critically intervene in the climate crisis — focusing on an ecological perspective, he calls unhindered capitalism a ‘defuturing’ of nature. He further reflexively identifies himself as a citizen of the developing world, interested in centering regional ways of knowing. Escobar notes that ontology emphasises both the power relations shaping epistemology, and the interrelations between societies. These ecological, regional, and relational theories inform his critique of capitalism.
Escobar theorises ways to reverse the dominant epistemologies upheld through the depoliticisation of design as a field. He notes how the constructed binaries of nature/culture, socio political hierarchies, and fundamentally unsustainable consumerism are left uncritiqued within the field20. Political ecology conversely repoliticises design, addressing these very issues. Escobar is critical of depoliticised technocratic solutions, which try to fix ecological destruction through slightly different types of ecological destruction: for example, using carbon capture to curb global warming, and in the process burying carbon into the ground using intensive and problematic chemicals. Not all of Escobar’s ideas are fully developed. He purports the decentralisation of power, citing examples of localised city planning and activism, however he does not develop this plan any further and it is unclear if he thinks decentralisation would be an effective design in fields beyond these examples. Ecological destruction for one, poses a global problem that transcends the construction of nations and regions. Once a(n achingly slow) decision has been made, it might be most effective to enact it on a global level. For Escobar however to meaningfully affect the climate crisis, modernity will have to be taken apart entirely — the radicality of this idea, he fears however, disincentives modernists from changing course21. Most alternate worlds however, have experienced significant threats at the hands of modernist, capitalist and non dualist proponents.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2024
absolutely fascinating topic. i was totally surprised by the quality of the information from this book, but, unfortunately, it does get a bit repetitive, almost like the author wanted to make the book sound more complex by saying the same things, but with different words, a lot, and, on top of this, by forcing complex constructions using words, which do exist, yes, but few really use them like that (example: something “invisibilises” something else…when the average person would just use something makes something else invisible...now imagine this 1000x level upped and here's the book) in an attempt to make everything sound more "complicated" than it needed to be, when the goal should have been to make the book as accessible as possible, in the desire to change how people think, right? because that was the goal, right?
the information is important and good, and i did not wish to tax the book for the author's ego trip, but, as i was listening to it, it did make me laugh, to see the author's struggle to overcomplicate things over and over...i almost did not wish to finish it for a while, but i kept getting annoyed by it in my "started" list every time i was ignoring it. i think it's a shame that i ended up not liking it, when the topic is one of my favourites, and it's so relevant to the world, only because of the author's over-intellectualized writing style. it's a style i don't like. someone told me once that if you can't say something complex in a simple way, so that everyone in the room understands you fast, you're not a good teacher, and i think that's fair, especially since this was philosophy, and meant for everyone, not quantum physics, where they need to use words they come up with (it's one of their quarks). i'd be curious to know if this is how the author talks to everyone else on a regular basis, or if he spent extra time to re-write this book over and over only to make it sound like it's more than it actually is. i hope he does not do this to his students, if he has them. a bit of a shame, i really thought this will make my favourites shelf, but it ended up being disappointing, again, not because of the information, which is great, but because of the quality of the presentation.
the information is important and good, and i did not wish to tax the book for the author's ego trip, but, as i was listening to it, it did make me laugh, to see the author's struggle to overcomplicate things over and over...i almost did not wish to finish it for a while, but i kept getting annoyed by it in my "started" list every time i was ignoring it. i think it's a shame that i ended up not liking it, when the topic is one of my favourites, and it's so relevant to the world, only because of the author's over-intellectualized writing style. it's a style i don't like. someone told me once that if you can't say something complex in a simple way, so that everyone in the room understands you fast, you're not a good teacher, and i think that's fair, especially since this was philosophy, and meant for everyone, not quantum physics, where they need to use words they come up with (it's one of their quarks). i'd be curious to know if this is how the author talks to everyone else on a regular basis, or if he spent extra time to re-write this book over and over only to make it sound like it's more than it actually is. i hope he does not do this to his students, if he has them. a bit of a shame, i really thought this will make my favourites shelf, but it ended up being disappointing, again, not because of the information, which is great, but because of the quality of the presentation.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 30 reviews