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Book Cover for: Design as Politics, Tony Fry

Design as Politics

Tony Fry

Design as Politics confronts the inadequacy of contemporary politics to deal with unsustainability. Current 'solutions' to unsustainability are analysed as utterly insufficient for dealing with the problems but, further than this, the book questions the very ability of democracy to deliver a sustainable future.

Design as Politics argues that finding solutions to this problem, of which climate change is only one part, demands original and radical thinking. Rather than reverting to failed political ideologies, the book proposes a post-democratic politics. In this, Design occupies a major role, not as it is but as it could be if transformed into a powerful agent of change, a force to create and extend freedom. The book does no less than position Design as a vital form of political action.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Berg Publishers
  • Publish Date: Nov 1st, 2010
  • Pages: 288
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.60in - 6.40in - 0.90in - 1.10lb
  • EAN: 9781847885685
  • Categories: History & CriticismGlobalizationEssays

About the Author

Fry, Tony: - 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 Ibagué, Colombia. Tony 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).

More books by Tony Fry

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Book Cover for: Steel: A Design, Cultural and Ecological History, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Remaking Cities: An Introduction to Urban Metrofitting, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Unstaging War, Confronting Conflict and Peace, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Political Breakout: Situation, Need, Action, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Becoming Human by Design, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Writing Design Fiction: Relocating a City in Crisis, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Evil, Madness, and Truth: Gerda's Story, Tony Fry
Book Cover for: Disappearing Cities, Tony Fry

Praise for this book

"Design as Politics destroys our fantasies of 'sustainable design' and urges us to face our collective future. Read this before deciding whether you have the courage and conviction necessary to be a designer of the future." --Lisa Norton, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"To say that this book is 'timely' is an understatement. Fry offers us one of the most prescient theses for the design of a different possible future - a time and a politics 'to-come' - that we have. We all ignore the messages of this book at our own peril." --Duncan Fairfax, Goldsmiths, University of London

"There is no more challenging and urgent political question than whether democracy is able to deliver sustainable economic and political futures. Fry's is the first book to ask this question, not in the abstract but in the context of asking how we make the future." --Clive Dilnot, Parsons, The New School for Design, New York