Sixteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

In the field of design for sustainability, so far, much attention has been paid to environmental and, more recently, social dimensions. The economic sphere and its interactions with the other two pillars of sustainable development, or even with a fourth transversal pole organized around culture, have been much less explored. The economy pole is usually approached from the perspective of efficiency and optimization, as in the case of the circular economy, inspired by the industrial ecology that emerged in the 1970s. While social economy and social entrepreneurship seem to represent a promising avenue for the operationalization of more sustainable modes of development, the role of design at the interface of these approaches remains little explored. Based on theoretical material and on insights from a participative action-project, this paper explores the implication for design theories, practices, and education. It considers a new research-creation initiative for economic resilience based on greater localization as a potential response to the recent challenges raised by the pandemic.