Transition or Transformation? The Mediated Meanings of Sustainability

Book chapter (2021)

Authors

R. Bendor Design Conceptualization and Communication - IDE
Research Group
Design Conceptualization and Communication (IDE) (TU Delft)
More Info
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Published Date

2021

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Industrial Design Engineering

Department

Human-Centered Design

Research Group

Design Conceptualization and Communication

Abstract

This chapter takes the discursive character of sustainability as a point of departure for arguing that what sustainability means is mediated and refracted by the interactive technologies used to engage the public with it. Four such meanings are introduced: from the perspective of technologies designed to promote sustainable behaviour sustainability is practiced as a balance to restore. Through gaming and simulation media sustainability is addressed as a complex problem to solve. With immersive technologies sustainability is felt as a deep relation to the world. And with speculatively designed media sustainability emerges as a social imaginary. The chapter concludes by suggesting that some of sustainability’s meanings lend themselves to systemic policy innovation and management – the kind of interventions sought by those pursuing sustainability transitions – while other meanings are more conducive to the kind of radical, open-ended changes associated with deep social transformation.