Design Beyond the Human
Transdisciplinary Conversations about the Planet
Will be published approx. on 22. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
344 pages
978-1-350-33806-7 (ISBN)
Description
How can design shine a light on humanity's relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants, now and in the future?
Global challenges like climate change and ecosystem degradation are proving that a singular disciplinary approach is inadequate to respond to issues where societal behaviours, individual choices, political decisions, economic, technological and scientific developments are so densely entangled - not least in design. But what happens when we turn things around and decentre "the human" to look at our relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants beyond the capitalist human-nature binary worldview?
Design Beyond the Human is a collection of essays by international scholars, designers and engaged citizens traversing activism, anthropology, conservation, creative writing, design practice, design theory, economics, education, environmental humanities, ethics, history, indigenous knowledge, law, philosophy, poetry, politics, regenerative agriculture, science, sociology and technology. Divided into three sections - We Are Not Alone, Design Beyond the Human, and Mediating Human-Non-Human Relations Through Design - the text generates conversations capable of thinking about life on planet Earth, challenging the Anglo-European anthropocentric conceptualisation of design that dominates practice, education, and academic discourse. Each section is unique: charting the transdisciplinary cultural perspective that is required to comprehend our predicament, the critique of human-centred design and its interdependence with capitalism, and the nascent practices and projects that are attempting to reconcile humanity's possible relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants.
The book offers the reader an opportunity to engage with expertise, knowledge, methodologies and lived experiences from across disciplines shaped by shared concerns and provides an opportunity to question if design in a more-than-human way might reimagine design's relationship to capitalism and contemporary lifestyles. Will our planetary future be merely an ecologically aware version of today, or, in going beyond the human, might we develop a transdisciplinary perspective capable of imagining an alternative vision of life on Earth?
Global challenges like climate change and ecosystem degradation are proving that a singular disciplinary approach is inadequate to respond to issues where societal behaviours, individual choices, political decisions, economic, technological and scientific developments are so densely entangled - not least in design. But what happens when we turn things around and decentre "the human" to look at our relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants beyond the capitalist human-nature binary worldview?
Design Beyond the Human is a collection of essays by international scholars, designers and engaged citizens traversing activism, anthropology, conservation, creative writing, design practice, design theory, economics, education, environmental humanities, ethics, history, indigenous knowledge, law, philosophy, poetry, politics, regenerative agriculture, science, sociology and technology. Divided into three sections - We Are Not Alone, Design Beyond the Human, and Mediating Human-Non-Human Relations Through Design - the text generates conversations capable of thinking about life on planet Earth, challenging the Anglo-European anthropocentric conceptualisation of design that dominates practice, education, and academic discourse. Each section is unique: charting the transdisciplinary cultural perspective that is required to comprehend our predicament, the critique of human-centred design and its interdependence with capitalism, and the nascent practices and projects that are attempting to reconcile humanity's possible relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants.
The book offers the reader an opportunity to engage with expertise, knowledge, methodologies and lived experiences from across disciplines shaped by shared concerns and provides an opportunity to question if design in a more-than-human way might reimagine design's relationship to capitalism and contemporary lifestyles. Will our planetary future be merely an ecologically aware version of today, or, in going beyond the human, might we develop a transdisciplinary perspective capable of imagining an alternative vision of life on Earth?
Reviews / Votes
Connecting relevant dots in an emerging transdisciplinary discourse - both well-known positions and weak signals. The broad disciplinary nature of this book allows and encourages thinking and exploration of design for social, ecological, and political transformations. It could become a compass for entering uncharted territory for Humanity! * Philipp Heidkamp, Koeln International School of Design, Germany * Design Beyond the Human is an essential, transdisciplinary book that boldly challenges Eurocentric design paradigms while decolonising design through diverse fields and practices. Theory and practice merge together to rethink humanity's relationship with Tonantsintlalli-Our Mother Earth- with all entities towards a way of co-becoming for a sustainable future. * Desiree Ibinarriaga, Senior Lecturer in Design, Monash University, Australia *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
74 B&W illus
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 194 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
947 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-33806-7 (9781350338067)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Professor Elio Caccavale is Subject Lead for the MDes in Design Innovation and Citizenship at The Glasgow School of Art. His teaching practice explores how design can foster more equitable relationships among all living beings and ecological systems - recognising their 'citizenship' within an expanded, more-than-human conception of society. Elio's research investigates the ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of scientific knowledge and emerging technologies.
Professor Gordon Hush is Head of the School of Innovation & Technology at The Glasgow School of Art, UK. He is a Sociologist, with an interest in the way that design-led innovation initiates and informs social, economic and ecological change. He is keen to explore the ways in which scientific or technological expertise are incorporated within or applied to the material circumstances and design outcomes which shape human experience, and the consequences that these have for life on the planet.
Professor Gordon Hush is Head of the School of Innovation & Technology at The Glasgow School of Art, UK. He is a Sociologist, with an interest in the way that design-led innovation initiates and informs social, economic and ecological change. He is keen to explore the ways in which scientific or technological expertise are incorporated within or applied to the material circumstances and design outcomes which shape human experience, and the consequences that these have for life on the planet.
Content
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Foreword, Erin O'Donnell (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Introduction, Elio Caccavale and Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Section I: We Are Not Alone
1. A Political Economy of Structural Anthropocentrism, Steven McMullen (Hope College, USA)
2. Co-Creating Multispecies Worlds, Danielle Celermajer (University of Sydney, Australia) and Matthew Darmour-Paul (Australia National University, Australia)
3. Global Trajectories of Oil Palm: From African Communal Groves to Asian Plantation Frontiers, Noboru Ishikawa (Kyoto University, Japan)
4. The Call of the Cricket, Helen Hollyman (Independent Scholar, USA) and James Skeet (Co-founder Sprit Farm, Navajo Nation, USA)
5. Design, Education and the Moulding of Alternative Futures in the Anthropocene, Peter Sutoris (University of Leeds, UK)
Section II: Design Beyond the Human
6. Design and the Invention of the Modern Human, Samer Akkach and John Powell (University of Adelaide, Australia)
7. Ecological Design Thinking in the Anthropocene/Ecocene, Joanna Boehnert (Bath Spa University, UK)
8. Indigenous Design: A Relational Practice Between People and Place, Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga (Monash University, Australia)
9. Life-Centered Design: A Sub-Saharan Perspective, Francois-Xavier Nzi iyo Nsenga, (Independent Scholar, Rwanda)
10. Design and Deep Time, Naiyi Wang (China Central Academy of Fine Arts, China)
11. Orbital Debris: Design and its Extraterrestrial Aftermath, Alice Twemlow (Royal Academy of Art, the Netherlands)
Section III: Mediating Human-Non-Human Relations Through Design
12. Consider Everything: A New Kind of Design for a Computationally Irreducible World, J. Paul Neeley (Royal College of Art, UK)
13. Planetarity: Designing for Coexistence - Erinma Ochu (University of the West of England, UK) and Caroline Ward (The Royal College of Art, UK)
14. Indigenous Futures: Epistemologies of Care for a World in Crisis, Felipe Viveros (Culture Hack Labs, UK)
15. A Bottom-Up Approach to Conservation: The Vertical University, Nepal, Priyanka Bista (Vertical University, Nepal)
16. Design That Thinks Like a Mountain, Xinlin Song (Yunhe Centre, China)
17. A Larger, Less Humanised Design Community, Kate Fletcher (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
18. Talking Materials: A Discursive Design Practice for a Design Beyond the Human. Domitilla Dardi (European Institute of Design, Italy)
19. Towards a Culture of Life: A New Synthesis for the Living World, Rachel Armstrong (KU Leuven, Belgium)
20. Designing the Future of Agriculture, Kris Spiros (From Fauna, USA)
Afterword, Elio Caccavale and Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Bibliography
Index
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Foreword, Erin O'Donnell (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Introduction, Elio Caccavale and Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Section I: We Are Not Alone
1. A Political Economy of Structural Anthropocentrism, Steven McMullen (Hope College, USA)
2. Co-Creating Multispecies Worlds, Danielle Celermajer (University of Sydney, Australia) and Matthew Darmour-Paul (Australia National University, Australia)
3. Global Trajectories of Oil Palm: From African Communal Groves to Asian Plantation Frontiers, Noboru Ishikawa (Kyoto University, Japan)
4. The Call of the Cricket, Helen Hollyman (Independent Scholar, USA) and James Skeet (Co-founder Sprit Farm, Navajo Nation, USA)
5. Design, Education and the Moulding of Alternative Futures in the Anthropocene, Peter Sutoris (University of Leeds, UK)
Section II: Design Beyond the Human
6. Design and the Invention of the Modern Human, Samer Akkach and John Powell (University of Adelaide, Australia)
7. Ecological Design Thinking in the Anthropocene/Ecocene, Joanna Boehnert (Bath Spa University, UK)
8. Indigenous Design: A Relational Practice Between People and Place, Desiree Hernandez Ibinarriaga (Monash University, Australia)
9. Life-Centered Design: A Sub-Saharan Perspective, Francois-Xavier Nzi iyo Nsenga, (Independent Scholar, Rwanda)
10. Design and Deep Time, Naiyi Wang (China Central Academy of Fine Arts, China)
11. Orbital Debris: Design and its Extraterrestrial Aftermath, Alice Twemlow (Royal Academy of Art, the Netherlands)
Section III: Mediating Human-Non-Human Relations Through Design
12. Consider Everything: A New Kind of Design for a Computationally Irreducible World, J. Paul Neeley (Royal College of Art, UK)
13. Planetarity: Designing for Coexistence - Erinma Ochu (University of the West of England, UK) and Caroline Ward (The Royal College of Art, UK)
14. Indigenous Futures: Epistemologies of Care for a World in Crisis, Felipe Viveros (Culture Hack Labs, UK)
15. A Bottom-Up Approach to Conservation: The Vertical University, Nepal, Priyanka Bista (Vertical University, Nepal)
16. Design That Thinks Like a Mountain, Xinlin Song (Yunhe Centre, China)
17. A Larger, Less Humanised Design Community, Kate Fletcher (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
18. Talking Materials: A Discursive Design Practice for a Design Beyond the Human. Domitilla Dardi (European Institute of Design, Italy)
19. Towards a Culture of Life: A New Synthesis for the Living World, Rachel Armstrong (KU Leuven, Belgium)
20. Designing the Future of Agriculture, Kris Spiros (From Fauna, USA)
Afterword, Elio Caccavale and Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Bibliography
Index