Values and Actions (Asynchronous Session)
The Sustainabilities of Extra-modern Design Ontologies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Joana Meroz
There is broad consensus that design has played a major role in bringing about the Anthropocene. Many scholars argue that design’s destructive force lies in it having morphed from a historical product of Western modernity into a mass reproducer of modern Western ontology on a global scale through European colonialism, capitalism and imperialism. In this modern Western ontology, humans are distinct from and superior to a ‘natural world’ which functions as a passive backdrop to human activity and which only has value in relation to its human utility. Accordingly, some scholars affiliated with the ‘decolonisation’ turn in design studies argue that transforming design from an anthropocentric, colonialist and extractivist practice into a sustainable one requires replacing design’s totalizing ontology with local, extra-modern ones. Their idea is that extra-modern ontologies, which see humans and the land as co-extensive, disrupt the modern Western ontology of division, mastery and conquest, and thereby enable the development of sustainable design. However, this paper contends that the championing of extra-modern ontologies in the service of sustainability runs the risk of re-inscribing an authoritative universalist story about the true nature of the world that ultimately excludes the very local ontological variabilities in design that it seeks to defend. In contrast, by drawing on the ethnographic record of extra-modern peoples, this paper develops an alternative approach to interpreting extra-modern design ontologies and how they can inform sustainable design.
Promoting Water Conservation: The Role of Nature Contact and Connectedness to Nature as Determinants of Household Water Use View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nazaret Ibáñez Rueda
One of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to increase water-use efficiency in all sectors to ensure the availability of water resources. In the domestic sphere, water consumption is largely conditioned by the habits and behavior of individuals. The relationship with nature has been identified as a driver of a wide range of pro-environmental behaviors, however, its role in the adoption of responsible water consumption habits remains largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated the influence of connection and contact with nature on five different uses of water at home. Using ordered probit regressions in a sample of 874 students from the University of Granada (Spain), we found that connectedness to nature is positively related to efficient water use in showering, food treatment, and during dental hygiene, while nature contact is positively associated with efficient use of taps and shower water. The efficient use of household appliances is the only water consumption behavior studied that is not significantly associated with the relationship with nature. These findings open a new path for water conservation policies and underline the importance of nature in achieving a sustainable use of this resource.
Sustainable Learning and Counter-culture Values in a Jamaican School and Community View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Romina De Angelis
This paper focuses on some of the findings that emerged from doctoral research fieldwork in Jamaica exploring the interaction between local knowledge, values, and practices and dominant Western approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD). The study analysed the challenges and lessons revealed by these diverse perspectives and how they both inform academic and policy ESD discourses locally and globally. Major aspects of critical debates on ESD are presented and a definition of sustainable learning is provided for this study. Sustainable learning is based on critically understanding and re-envisioning environmental, cultural, social, political, and economic relationships within ESD to ensure a sustainable future. Perspectives from critical eco-pedagogic, postcolonial, and Freirean approaches to environmental issues help frame ESD debates and challenges through a critical lens. They highlight how these challenges manifest in the local practices of a school and community located in an environmentally at risk and socio-economically disadvantaged area in Jamaica. An ethnographic methodological approach to the study -based on observations and interviews- revealed local practices and perspectives. Content analysis of policy documents contributed to linking practices at the grassroots level with national and international arrangements. Three main themes were identified in the findings: i) issues around learning; ii) issues around values and iii) issues around leadership. This paper focuses on the second theme, where local counter-culture values of ‘get-rich-quick’ and Rasta(farian) outlooks symbolize two differing responses within the Jamaican context. The study concludes that they represent a transformative potential to challenge larger systemic paradigms.
Into the Undergrowth: An Optical Reinterpretation of Woodland Spaces
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dan Brackenbury
This research considers how woodland areas might be understood and explored as an assemblage of organic ‘readymade’ installations. Using a series of walks through the levadas of Madeira as a case-study, the project exemplifies how green spaces can be reimagined as landscapes of surprising and puzzling aesthetic interactions. A key discovery in this experimental process observes how shards of sunlight cast through the dense canopy of the Laurisilva Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, create dramatic spot-lit illuminations on the trees, plants and shrubbery below. A photo-essay interrogates the creative potential of this optical phenomenon, revealing how the environment can almost be reimagined as a type of organic scenography. The author notes how we often read the natural world as a familiar place of mundanity and discusses the implications of a more sensory interpretation informed by playfulness and experiential interaction.
Environmental Concern and Emotional Disposition towards the Environment: A Study of Indian Adolescents View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gurpreet Mehdiratta
In India every fifth person is between the age of 10-19 years. This makes it the country with the largest adolescent population the world (UNICEF, 2020). Youth are active agents in protecting the environment, hence what adolescents know and feel about environmental issues are important markers for long term social change. This study assesses the level of environmental concern and emotional disposition towards the environment of Indian adolescents between the age of 14-18 years in urban cities (Grade 9-Grade 12 school students). Data from 714 adolescents was collected and analyzed via SPSS version 21. The results show that Indian adolescents have a very high level of concern towards environmental issues with global warming, cutting of forests and air pollution being the top three concerns. The study also shows that Indian adolescents show very high emotional connect towards the environment with feelings of anger, anxiety, and sadness emerging as the main emotions that they feel towards the environment. Gender has an important role to play in both environmental concern and emotional disposition towards the environment, with females showing higher levels of concern as well as a high emotional response. Adolescents who participate in an environmental activity have higher concern than those who do not participate in any environmental activity. Indian adolescents consider Internet, Newspapers, and Teachers as their top sources of environmental information. The school students also show maximum participation in Reduce, Reuse and Recycle activities and Plantation drives.
