…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.

What are these risks? Can we predict their occurrence? What tools and methods are used? How did past societies face them? Are they inevitable? Should we plan and prepare?

While many disciplines have explored these questions through thousands of scholar papers, and many books have been published, none pursued a transdisciplinary approach. This is why we’ve coined a neologism – collapsology – which refers to the field of research in the scientific community that studies existential risks, including civilisational collapse, in order to invite scholars, academic and independent experts, and the public alike, to join together and engage in a meaningful conversation on these urgent and vital questions.