Cameron TONKINWISE

School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

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Abstract
The Anthropocene acknowledges that the volume of designed things is now harming the sustainability of the ecosystems on which current ways of living depend. As a result, there is an urgent need for us to do things differently. But how differently? The history of the idea of ecology has involved putting limits on tolerable diversity. For this reason, ecological politics can be compatible with anti-immigration politics. This article argues instead for a critical diversity, one that can counter the current Proactionary Imperative, which extols high risk but potentially high return, radical technological responses to our societies’ unsustainability. That critical diversity would embrace designing for migration between connected slow, local, communities.

Keywords
Sustainable Design, Anthropocene, Resilience, Proactionary, Precautionary, Cosmopolitanism