Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Narrow Door to Sustainability
T2 - from practically useful to spiritually useful artefacts
AU - Walker, Stuart
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Beginning with a rationale for extending design’s ambit beyond materialist and consumerist values in order to address today’s pressing sustainability concerns, the contributions and limitations of eco-technologies and service solutions are discussed. The case is made that a less consumptive path requires a more fundamental systemic shift in priorities and values, and the basis of this must be rooted in deeper understandings of human meaning. The difficulties of including traditional, primarily religious, expressions of ‘inner’ values in the public realm are identified. However, emerging trans-religious and/or supra-religious forms offer an opportunity for restoring notions of profound meaning and wisdom in our workaday endeavours. This provides a grounding for design development and the creation of a supra-religious ‘spiritually useful’ artefact, which offers a tangible, creative example of a post-materialist direction for design. In the process, contemporary sustainability concerns are embraced.
AB - Beginning with a rationale for extending design’s ambit beyond materialist and consumerist values in order to address today’s pressing sustainability concerns, the contributions and limitations of eco-technologies and service solutions are discussed. The case is made that a less consumptive path requires a more fundamental systemic shift in priorities and values, and the basis of this must be rooted in deeper understandings of human meaning. The difficulties of including traditional, primarily religious, expressions of ‘inner’ values in the public realm are identified. However, emerging trans-religious and/or supra-religious forms offer an opportunity for restoring notions of profound meaning and wisdom in our workaday endeavours. This provides a grounding for design development and the creation of a supra-religious ‘spiritually useful’ artefact, which offers a tangible, creative example of a post-materialist direction for design. In the process, contemporary sustainability concerns are embraced.
KW - product design
KW - religion
KW - inner values
KW - spiritually useful design
KW - symbolism
KW - sustainability
U2 - 10.1504/IJSDES.2012.051497
DO - 10.1504/IJSDES.2012.051497
M3 - Journal article
VL - 2
SP - 83
EP - 103
JO - International Journal of Sustainable Design
JF - International Journal of Sustainable Design
SN - 1743-8292
IS - 1
ER -