John Thackara

Flanders Design Summit
Genk, 14 December 2013
@johnthackara
Places to intervene in the system - and how

1 Development as violence
2 The Great Turning
3 Acting inside systems

1] Development as violence
Energy
Money
Risk
Metabolic Rift
x 60

One
x 60

„risk manager‟

metabolic rift

“the soil nutrient
cycle and the
metabolic rift are
invisible”

“The cities have forgot the earth and will
rot at heart till they remember it again.”
Wendell Berry
1
1
11

2
The Great Turning
“the shift from the industrial growth society
to a life-sustaining civilization”

“the reintegration
of human endeavors
into a larger ecological
consciousness”
Thomas Berry (19142009)
1
3
13

“A global transformation of values
has already begun”
1
4

ending
emerging

„the economy„
>
The Commons / bio-region

re-connecting
with the other
Céline Boyer

reconnecting with rivers

reconnecting with the soil

solidarity P2P sharing
economy

for future generations

democracy engaging with difference

The Great Turning is everywhere ...

New York

Los Angeles
2
5
25

Nantes

Rotterdam

Seattle

Lisa Shipek
Infrastructure Maker
Tucson

Dundee

Pomona

3
Acting inside systems
“the dance of the big and the small”

New ways of knowing
-to close the metabolic rift
Design thinking
- to activate our „latent willingness to change‟
New ways to meet
- for democracy, trust, difference

3.1 food

nourishlife.org

action: resource allocation

action: social enterprise

action: tool design
PACHUBE

action: r&d
Interferenze

action: new ways to meet
(Giles Lane)

small actions
> big picture
long term
(5-10 years)

Warehousing
Aggregation
Distribution
Processing
Training
Accounting
Marketing
Value Chain
Technology

3.2
DEMENTIA CARE

Question
“how will the government
look after all the
old people with dementia?”

Answer
It won‟t.
It can‟t.

Better, ask this question:
“What practical actions
would improve daily life
for people with dementia
and their carers?”

Alzheimer 100
data + situated & embodied understanding

outcome: a shared
understanding
of priorities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
social support
respect at end of life
support for carers
public awareness
assistive technology [18%]

outcome: support ecology
informal
formal

outcome: patient journey map
Insitum.com Mexico City

accreditation

acknowledging &
accrediting

for discussion:
Which systems? What actions?

thank you
@johnthackara