Contrapractice
Action Against Defuturing
Published on 14. May 2026
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-350-44850-6 (ISBN)
Description
Building on his foundational work on 'defuturing,' a deconstructive method that exposes historically the unsustainability of a great deal of design practice and its products, Tony Fry now offers a powerful response.
There is no shortage of analysis of the current state of the world. Climate change impacts are increasing, environmental destruction will follow, populations and settlements will be displaced, food security will become critical, geopolitical instability and escalating dangers of conflict will grow. Such an entangled complexity threatens life itself more seriously than at any time since the Ice Age. Against the real threats to life on Earth, what are the world's political leaders doing? The answers sit between nothing and very little.
So, what is to be done? There is no immediate or simple answer. But what Contrapractice acknowledges is that nothing changes unless practices change. The intent is for the process to take on a life of its own by the many people who care about securing a viable future. It does not provide template solutions, but the ability to act. Every reader is viewed as a communicator of its message and a change agent of their own practice. Fry's dialogue in the book with Dulmini Perera is a prompt for the book to be an object of discussion.
There is no shortage of analysis of the current state of the world. Climate change impacts are increasing, environmental destruction will follow, populations and settlements will be displaced, food security will become critical, geopolitical instability and escalating dangers of conflict will grow. Such an entangled complexity threatens life itself more seriously than at any time since the Ice Age. Against the real threats to life on Earth, what are the world's political leaders doing? The answers sit between nothing and very little.
So, what is to be done? There is no immediate or simple answer. But what Contrapractice acknowledges is that nothing changes unless practices change. The intent is for the process to take on a life of its own by the many people who care about securing a viable future. It does not provide template solutions, but the ability to act. Every reader is viewed as a communicator of its message and a change agent of their own practice. Fry's dialogue in the book with Dulmini Perera is a prompt for the book to be an object of discussion.
Reviews / Votes
Tony Fry's latest book is nothing other than revolutionary: a call to reorientate all our knowledge and all our actions (even beliefs) to the sole task of futuring. Rather than letting the world's fate to be determined by the new nihilisms of extreme capitalism, anti-democratic politics, and climate denial, Fry proposes a concrete mission, enjoining us to engage, individually and collectively, in Contrapractice-actions that negate destructive practices and which instead release the potential to redirect action towards futuring. Is there a more important set of connected tasks today? * Matthew Holt, Applied Cybernetics Lead and Deputy Director, Australian National University, Australia * In their clear-eyed dialogue in Contrapractice, Fry and Perera construct a new theory of practice for our times of accelerating climate change, population unsettlement, techno-colonization, and geopolitical uncertainty. What is different from Fry's previous works and cannot be missed is that 'contrapractice' needs a community. It's a call for practitioners of all stripes to take a stand against defuturing in ways that can be started today, amid complex and compounding crises and against worsening conditions. In this sense, Contrapractice offers a new political imagination for a world irrevocably changed by the inhuman and nonhuman of human design. * Abby Melick Lopes, Professor of Social Design, University of Technology Sydney, Australia *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
481 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-44850-6 (9781350448506)
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
Tony Fry is Principal of The Studio at the Edge of the World, Tasmania, Adjunct Professor at the University of Tasmania, Australia and Visiting Professor at Universidad de Ibague, Colombia. He is an award-winning designer, cultural theorist, educator and author. He has held academic positions in Australia and internationally and is the author of sixteen books, including Design Futuring (Bloomsbury, 2009); Design as Politics (Bloomsbury, 2011), Becoming Human By Design (Bloomsbury, 2012), Remaking Cities (Bloomsbury, 2017), Defuturing (Bloomsbury, 2020) and Writing Design Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Dulmini Perera is Lecturer and Researcher at Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany. She works at the intersection of critical theory, design theory and systems/cybernetics research, and is the recipient of the Heinz von Foerster award (2021). She has written and edited a number of publications including the co-edited book The Space of Technicity (forthcoming, 2023) and the co-edited Footprint journal volume Engaging Cosmotechnical Difference in Architecture and Urbanism (forthcoming, 2024). She is a member of award-winning design and research teams in Sri Lanka and internationally.
Dulmini Perera is Lecturer and Researcher at Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany. She works at the intersection of critical theory, design theory and systems/cybernetics research, and is the recipient of the Heinz von Foerster award (2021). She has written and edited a number of publications including the co-edited book The Space of Technicity (forthcoming, 2023) and the co-edited Footprint journal volume Engaging Cosmotechnical Difference in Architecture and Urbanism (forthcoming, 2024). She is a member of award-winning design and research teams in Sri Lanka and internationally.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgements
Opening Dialogue, Tony Fry and Dulmini Perera
Introduction: Defuturing, Practice, Contrapractice, Tony Fry
1. Defuturing Now, Tony Fry
2. On Practice, Tony Fry
3. Contrapractice in the End Times, Tony Fry
4. Reflections and Projections, Tony Fry
Closing Conversation, Tony Fry and Dulmini Perera
Appendices, Tony Fry
Appendix 1. On an elaboration on Bourdieu's understanding of habitus
Appendix 2. Michel de Certeau and Practices of Everyday Life
Appendix 3. Peter Sloterdijk's Theory of Practice
Appendix 4. Technology revealed and cybernetics stripped bare
Appendix 5. Degrowth/Regrowth
Glossary
References
Index
Acknowledgements
Opening Dialogue, Tony Fry and Dulmini Perera
Introduction: Defuturing, Practice, Contrapractice, Tony Fry
1. Defuturing Now, Tony Fry
2. On Practice, Tony Fry
3. Contrapractice in the End Times, Tony Fry
4. Reflections and Projections, Tony Fry
Closing Conversation, Tony Fry and Dulmini Perera
Appendices, Tony Fry
Appendix 1. On an elaboration on Bourdieu's understanding of habitus
Appendix 2. Michel de Certeau and Practices of Everyday Life
Appendix 3. Peter Sloterdijk's Theory of Practice
Appendix 4. Technology revealed and cybernetics stripped bare
Appendix 5. Degrowth/Regrowth
Glossary
References
Index