www.systemic-design.net

1. EcoLabs
Designing the Ecocene:
Mapping the Political Economy of Design
Dr. Joanna Boehnert
CECAN Research Fellow @CECAN
Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus
University of Surrey, UK
Recent past: Research Fellow in Design @CREAM
Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media
University of Westminster, UK
@EcoLabs + @ecocene
http://ecolabsblog.wordpress.com

2. EcoLabs
Contents
1. The Ecocene Alternative
2. The Political Economy of Design
3. Mapping the Political Economy
4. Mapping the Political Economy of Design
Prosperity is increasingly concentrated and over
the past 30 years inequality has risen in over
75% of the countries Global North (OECD
countries). Although there is more than enough
food to meet everyone’s needs, 13% of the
global population face hunger. Meanwhile,
30-50% of the food supply is simply wasted. It
appears that the current model of development
fails to provide prosperity for the majority.
3/4 countries in the Global North
face greater inequality than in 1980.1% of global food supply would eliminate hunger - yet 30-50% of global food supply is simply wasted.
Economic Growth
THE BALANCE SHEET FOR
GROSS GLOBAL PROSPERITY

3. EcoLabs
A: Anthropocene
• What is occurring?
B: Capitalocene
• Why is this occurring?
C: Ecocene
• What would we like to occur?
PART 1. The Ecocene Alternative

4. EcoLabs
It is important to be specific about
exactly what ‘anthropos’ are doing
to destabilise climate systems and
other planetary boundaries.

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The Anthropocene must
be “as short/thin as
possible”
Haraway 2015, 60
PART 1. The Ecocene Alternative

6. EcoLabsPART 1. The Ecocene Alternative

7. EcoLabs

8. EcoLabs
“there is no advantage to us to bring the
Anthropocene into the future…
..the mythos of the Anthropocene does
not help us…
...we must re-imagine our world and
enable the Ecocene”
Rachel Armstrong 2015
PART 1. The Ecocene Alternative

9. EcoLabs
Ecocene
• well versed with the scientific knowledge of the
Anthropocene + the critical perspective of the
Capitalocene
• an ontology, epistemology and ethic emerging
from ecological thought.
• generated by ecologically literate design
PART 1. The Ecocene Alternative

10. EcoLabs

11. EcoLabsPART 2. The Political Economy of Design

12. EcoLabs
...all design exists in a larger framework of
political economy by which costs and benefits
are distributed within society and across
generations.
Orr 2018, 4
PART 2. The Political Economy of Design

13. EcoLabs
The problem is not in the particular techniques of design,
which have become very sophisticated, but in the haphazard
structures – economic, political, social – in which design
occurs, which slows the effort to take ecological design to the
necessary scale. The rules of the system permit change only
at the margins
Orr 2018, 8
PART 2. The Political Economy of Design

14. EcoLabs
The practice of ecological design must be applied to
the larger systems of politics, law, and economics...
...to design social systems that work with, not against,
natural processes. Orr 2018, 8
PART 2. The Political Economy of Design

15. EcoLabsPART 3. Mapping the Political Economy
The Circular Flow diagram (from Samuelson 1948 in Raworth 2017) - for 70 years was the defining depiction of the macroeconomy.

16. EcoLabs
NOMY
piness
The Steady State Economy
EcoLabs 2009
Graphic design by Angela Morelli
Based on a paper by Herman Daly
THE STEADY STATE ECONOMY
A Totem of Real Happiness
www.eco-labs.org
PART 3. Mapping the Political Economy

17. EcoLabs
A Hierarchy
of Systems
A. ecological
B. social
C. economic
A is the context for B and C.
A existed before and will
exist after both B and C.
B and C must regulate
activities according to A’s
patterns & processes.
C
B
A

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ecosystem
society
economy
PART 3. Mapping the Political Economy

19. EcoLabs
nature’s economy
sustenance
economy
market
economy
market economy
sustenance
economy
nature’s
economy
The stable constellations of three economies The unstable constellations of three economies
(Shiva 2005:52)
PART 3. Mapping the Political Economy

20. EcoLabsPART 3. Mapping the Political Economy

21. EcoLabs

22. EcoLabsPART 3. Mapping the Political Economy

23. EcoLabsPART 3. Mapping the Political Economy
The Circular Flow diagram (from Samuelson 1948 in Raworth 2017) - for 70 years was the defining depiction of the macroeconomy.

24. EcoLabs
Embedded economy by Kate Raworth (2017)

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Doughnut economics by Kate Raworth

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ecological system
the
design
industry
society
problems
with
potentially
profitable
solutions
economic system
problems
not addressed
by the design
industry
PART 4. Mapping the Political Economy of Design

27. EcoLabs
Mapping the Political Economy of Design
A series of interdisciplinary mapping workshops
using a system oriented design approach and
knowledge visualisation methods.
By identifying barriers to and opportunities for
sustainable transitions, this work will support
redirected design practice.
PART 4. Mapping the Political Economy of Design

28. EcoLabs
1stfirst mapping workshop (w1)
Strategies
1) Sustainability strategies in
the design industries.
2) Environmental problems
that are and or are not
currently addressed by design.
3) The interactions and
relationships between these
strategies and problems.
2nd(w2)
Obstacles
1) The interactions between
environmental problems,
design strategies and
outcomes.
2) Obstacles to sustainable
design on a variety of levels
(system structures and in
terms of everyday design
practice).
3rd(w3)
Opportunities
1) How can problems and
interactions identified in w1
could be addressed by design?
2) What obstacles identified
in w2 could be addressed by
design?
3) What patterns that can be
identified with the mapping
process?
PART 4. Mapping the Political Economy of Design

29. EcoLabs
Ecocene design, unbounded - active in all four economic domains
Embedded economy by Kate Raworth (2017) modified by EcoLabs / J.Boehnert

30. EcoLabs
Dr. Joanna Boehnert https://ecolabsblog.wordpress.com | www.eco-labs.org | @EcoLabs + @ecocene | jboehenert@eco-labs.org