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Skip to content Book a Call contact Book a Call contact JohnThackara designing for life Search for: JohnThackara designing for life Search for: blog topics * most read * biodiversity * bioregioning * care * civic ecology * commoning * development * earth repair * energy * food systems * green finance * knowing * moving * nature-connection * urban-rural menu * Blog * About * About my work * Profile * Talks & Conversations * Publications * Urban-Rural Projects * Videos * Meet in France * Meet in France * MeetUp * Offsite * Retreat (self directed) * Handouts * Archive Homeadmin2023-08-09T18:07:42+00:00 * March 15, 2024 biodiversity | bioregioning | care | newsletter CARING FOR PLACE VS SYSTEMS THINKING: CAN THEY MEET? The uniqueness of place is hard for systems thinking to cope with. Systems thinking aspires to be – well, systematic. But blueprints, canvases and method cards are thin on the ground – literally – among place-caring practitioners. How can this mismatch be fixed? * March 2, 2024 biodiversity | bioregioning | civic ecology DESIGN FOR MULTI-SPECIES CITIES There is often more biodiversity in a city’s neglected spaces than in well-maintained parks and gardens - and at multiple scales, from microbiome, to bioregion. But these lifeworlds have been hidden from us during the urban age * January 15, 2024 most read | newsletter NEW YEAR, NEW MEETUP DATES Two spots for the June MeetUp are already filled – so don’t wait too long. This year we also offer one scholarship discount ticket per session at 500€ for the whole week. Application is easy: an email with 100 words about who you are, what you’re working on [continue …] * November 30, 2023 newsletter | [no topic] 7-DAY-SABBATICALS, THE ECOLOGICAL TURN IN DESIGN, AND OTHER NEWS The ecological turn is about reconnection with living systems, and each other, through the unique places where we live. For design, signals of this transformation take many forms - as I learned last month in Shanghai. * August 22, 2023 biodiversity | care | development | earth repair INFRASTRUCTURES OF CARE Most of these projects that are heavy, expensive and ecologically damaging. But in the absence of practical alternatives, simply saying "Stop!" is hopeless advice for the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on hard infra, now. Alternatives to concrete - infrastructures of care - are proliferating, and design can play a key role in moving these alternatives into the mainstream. * July 14, 2023 newsletter NEW THACKARA MEETUP: 9-16 SEPTEMBER 2023 “How do I finish a book on design that I began before the pandemic?” “How can I do meaningful work if my job is just about tech?” “With so many crises converging, what does it mean to do foresight work?” “Where can my skills be socially useful?”. “Should I quit my job? Academic research [continue …] * June 9, 2023 [no topic] WHAT ARE DESIGN INSTITUTES ACTUALLY FOR? The role of design institutions, in today's context, is a practical one. It’s to enable reconnection with nature, and designing for life. That's it. * May 27, 2023 newsletter THACKARA MEETUP JULY 2023 IS SOLD OUT Our Meetup of July 2023 is sold out - but we're thinking of hosting another one later in the year * May 11, 2023 newsletter THINKING ABOUT A CHANGE? “Two thirds of employees want to have a positive impact on the world”. (click to read the report) Is this research finding a surprise? Probably not. But, for most people I know, wanting to change, and actually doing so, remain miles apart. Most, but not all. I just posted [continue …] * March 10, 2023 biodiversity | care | civic ecology | nature-connection | urban-rural LIFEWORLDS: NATURE AS URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE Plans are being made to plant billions of trees – but who will care for them, and how? One answer: Green infrastructure is as much social, as it technical. That lesson informed the design of these urban ecology tools, equipment, and experiences. * March 3, 2023 biodiversity | care | development | most read | nature-connection | urban-rural ETHICS, DESIGN, CARE This short talk is about an economy with caring for life as its centre, rather than extraction and production. I compare earth care to modern medical care, and suggest that looking is not the same as caring. I ask what design can learn from Care Ethics – and find inspiration [continue …] * November 9, 2022 newsletter JOHN THACKARA NEWS: DESIGNING FOR LIFE – FROM MICROBES TO BIOREGIONS CONTENTS: Website upgrade | Where to meet post-Twitter? | Meetups & Residences | Designing for Life Case Studies | Edible Food Forests | Bioregioning in India | Nature Reconnection Podcast | Moth-friendly Fashion | Designing for Interdependence | Chinese ‘In The Bubble’ | * October 4, 2022 bioregioning | food systems | urban-rural THE GOOD WORK IN URBAN-RURAL A new course in Sweden asks, “what will a self-sufficient Hällefors Municipality taste like in 2030?” By turning ‘would-be-nice’ ideas into tangible prototypes, it turns ecological transition from an aspiration, into a practice. Included here: 20x emerging new livelihoods - from Edible Food Forests, to School-Farm Biocantines * September 27, 2022 civic ecology | knowing | nature-connection MODERN ENVIRONMENTALISM: A ROUGH GUIDE FROM GILGAMESH TO COP26 Alastair McIntosh reminds us here that the World’s oldest book, the Epic of Gilgamesh, portrayed tension between the wild and the civilised. The Buddha taught the interconnection of all things. Plato depicted the world as being “a living god”. * August 15, 2022 civic ecology | earth repair | green finance | nature-connection | newsletter SUSTAINABLE FINANCE VS THE REAL WORLD These are curious times. Even as the world burns, sustainable finance and green capitalism are booming: Sustainability Reporting. Net Zero. Climate Finance. ESG. Green New Deal. By some estimates, assets invested with environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria now top £35 trillion. Why would investors put money into an asset [continue …] * July 3, 2022 urban-rural THE (DESIGN) JOURNEY BACK TO LOCAL You and I use more energy & resources in single month than our great-grandparents used during their whole lifetime. The science says we can thrive in future - but only if we meet our every day needs using 5% of the energy and material throughputs we’re using now. What are we supposed to do with that information? * June 20, 2022 food systems | urban-rural BACK TO THE LAND 2.0: SOME JT VIDEOS Mapping Local Resources. Connecting Growers & Citizens. New Co-operatives. Urban-rural reconnection. (These videos introduce the annual Back To The Land 2.0 summer school, in Sweden, that I run together with Konstfack). * June 15, 2022 newsletter SUSTAINABILITY YOU CAN TOUCH I was stupefied when I read this text in 2020: “CEO Anne Rigail announces that Air France will offset all carbon emissions from the 450 domestic flights it runs daily. It will do so by funding projects to plant trees, protect forests, transition to sustainable energy, or protect biodiversity” A [continue …] * June 10, 2022 knowing | nature-connection FROM CONTROL, TO KINSHIP: ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION IN A MORE THAN HUMAN WORLD (Keynote talk in China) A just transition will happen when we see nature differently, relate to nature differently, and understand the purpose of development differently. So, can AI foster new ways of knowing and being in the world? Can it be medium of attention; a medium of connection; a medium of relationship with the living world? * April 28, 2022 care | urban-rural IDEAS FOR THE CITY THAT CARES: EZIO MANZINI’S NEW BOOK, LIVABLE PROXIMITY (This my review of Ezio Manzini's new book). You and I use more energy & resources in single month than our great-grandparents used during their whole lifetime. The science says we can only thrive in future by meeting our everyday needs using five percent of the energy and material throughputs we’re using now. That’s a Factor 20 reduction. What is anyone supposed to do with that information? * April 15, 2022 knowing | nature-connection TONANTSINTLALLI – A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MOTHER EARTH Can indigenous knowledges help us inhabit our own places in a more adaptive and responsive ways? Can connection with these kinds of lived experience help us redefine development, and progress, in our own situations? The text here is my introduction to "Tonantsintlalli - a Multidimensional Mother Earth" in Australia * March 24, 2022 newsletter NEWSLETTER: MICROBES AND SOCIAL EQUITY. TOOLS FOR CHANGEMAKERS. MEETUPS & OFFSITES Microbes and Social Equity | Tools for Changemakers | Multi-Species Cities | Design for Planet School for Village Hosts | Meetups/Retreats | Offsites for Teams | * March 24, 2022 urban-rural OPEN SCHOOL FOR VILLAGE HOSTS Village Hosts bring new social, economic and ecological life to small villages and their local economy. They create new livelihoods, and good work, in emerging urban-rural markets: positive-impact tourism, nature reconnection, adventure sports, farm-shares, learning journeys, wellness retreats, work-vacations, heritage trails, and more. * March 19, 2022 care | civic ecology | commoning | green finance | most read TOOLS FOR CHANGEMAKERS: CONVERSATION WITH DAVID BOLLIER Mutual aid. Local money. Collaborative care. Alternative futures are being created around the world -. but not, for the most part, in plain sight. David Bollier’s new book – Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking: Tools for the Transitions Ahead – brings dozens of social projects like these to [continue …] * March 7, 2022 civic ecology | nature-connection DESIGN FOR MULTI-SPECIES CITIES What would it mean to practice design in the knowledge that the well-being of humans, and non-humans, is inter-connected? Here are the results of a design workshop at Milan Polytechnic: practical ways to make cities hospitable for all of life, not just human life. * February 28, 2022 earth repair | nature-connection “AN INSPIRING DESIGN” Twenty landscape students were given an unusual design brief: regenerate the soils of the Camargue bioregion - its rhizosphere - as a biological, living entity. Do do this, they were told, by creating new associations between, people, animals, vegetation, and weather. * February 15, 2022 knowing | most read | nature-connection MICROBES AND SOCIAL EQUITY – CONVERSATION WITH DR SUE ISHAQ Ninety nine percent of life, it turns out, is invisible - so how do we design for that? My guest in this conversation is microbiome researcher Dr. Suzanne Ishaq, founder of the Microbes and Social Equity working group * January 30, 2022 newsletter MY NEWSLETTER: MEETUP DATES | REGENERATIVE DESIGN IN CHINA | BACK TO THE LAND 2.0 Dates for my Meetups/Retreats in 2022 | YouTube Channel | Nature Reconnection: Hour of Ecology | Project Regenerative Design in China | School for Village Hosts in Europe | Back To The Land Summer School in Sweden | Recent Publications | * December 9, 2021 care | development | most read BEYOND CALCULATION: AI AND SUSTAINABILITY (Keynote talk in China): Even before AI came along, “what’s good for humans” helped shape an economy that extracts vitality, as well as resources, from the planet’s living systems. This cultural disconnection – between the living world, and the economic one – explains why we either don’t think about rivers, soils, and biodiversity at all – or we treat them as natural ‘resources’ whose only purpose is to feed “the economy.” * October 7, 2021 moving HEATHROW CHAOS: TIME TO START DIGGING? The chaos at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is an excellent example of what happens when the logic of finance interacts with the logic of large complex systems. As Will Hutton wrote at the weekend, shareholders in British Airways (its sole tenant) and BAA (which runs the airport) demand perpetually growing dividends. [continue …] * October 7, 2021 civic ecology ENTRETIEN AVEC DOMUS MAGAZINE This is the French version of my interview with Domus Magazine: "When Value Arises From Relationships, Not From Things" * September 11, 2021 knowing | nature-connection HOW AI MIGHT BE USED TO ENHANCE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE (My foreward to DEDI) Indigenous peoples have a closer relationship with the ecologies of their land than those who practice ‘production agriculture’. But their intimate, fine-grained knowledge can always be enhanced. For example, biodata collected from plants could be ‘heard’ by the farmer as music. * September 10, 2021 earth repair | nature-connection THE ANTHROPONAUT’S WORDBOOK, BY KARIN FINK (I wrote this Prologue) Feeling powerless to change the course of events, the inclination to switch off can feel like self-defence. Karin Fink’s response is both nimble, and wise. Rather than re-draw the whole picture at a stroke, her focus in this book is on small connections, and how to enhance them. * May 18, 2021 knowing | nature-connection RE-WILDING THE BAUHAUS: WHAT ITS FOUNDATION COURSE SHOULD BE LIKE TODAY “Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks” writes Gloria E. Anzaldúa. For her, life-centered design could as well be thought of as weaving, as walking. “We humans need to be nepantleras - bridge builders and reweavers of relationality” (My chapter in the new Bauhaus book). * April 8, 2021 civic ecology CITIES AS LIFEWORLDS (Interview for Politecnico Milano). Design needs to ask these questions first: “has anyone found a different way to meet this daily life need (for food, shelter, care, mobility etc)? In the past? In another culture?” Let’s find out what alternatives already exist, first, and then explore how to adapt and improve on those. * March 11, 2021 knowing | most read JOHN CHRIS JONES AND ‘DESIGNING DESIGNING’ Its publisher, Bloomsbury, describes designing designing as “one of the most extraordinary books on design ever written”. It’s therefore welcome news that – after a period out of print – this classic book has now been reissued. (That’s my copy in the photograph above; it just arrived). [continue …] * March 4, 2021 care THE RELATIONSHIP OF MY TEXTS TO A DEAD FISH (A conversation with John Wood, professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, and joint editor (with Julia Lockheart) of the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice). I question why artists and designers should be encouraged to write in an intellectual way. After all these years, I still don’t understand the need to converse in abstruse language. * December 5, 2020 knowing SENSORY ORDERS (For an exhibition called Sensory Orders curated by Erik Adigard at Laznia Centre, in Gdansk). "As a writer, my work involves a search for small islands of coherence – that I can later describe – in which social and ecological relationships thrive together. My aim as a curator is similar: I strive to enable embodied encounters in which we feel ourselves to be part of nature, rather than separate from it. * November 27, 2020 nature-connection BOTTOM-UP BIODIVERSITY Whether connecting schools to farms in France, daylighting rivers in Mexico, or rewilding grasslands in Patagonia, we’re learning how to ‘do’ biodiversity well. (This text was commissioned by the Swiss Ministry of the Environment, FOEN). * June 16, 2020 knowing INTERVIEW WITH BBC MUNDO (in Spanish only, interview for BBC News Mundo,): Coronavirus | “Una de las locuras que se ha apoderado de Norteamérica y Europa es el pánico que les entra cuando las cosas van mal”: entrevista con el filósofo John Thackara William Marquez BBC News Mundo * May 19, 2020 moving A “MARSHALL PLAN FOR TOURISM” – BUT WITH WHAT AIM? The concept of sustainable tourism was invented 45 years ago – but it was added to global mass tourism, it did not replace it. Since then, although sustainable tourism brands have proliferated, mass tourism has continued to devastate its ‘destinations’ with growing intensity. So: what to do? * May 15, 2020 urban-rural URBAN-RURAL: THE NEW GEOGRAPHIES OF INNOVATION In this China keynote I describe three enabling conditions for system change: a capacity for ecological thinking; a focus on social infrastructure (rather than the concrete kind); and a shift of focus from place making, to place connecting. * May 14, 2020 most read ARTICLES IN RESILIENCE Social Food Forum | The Internet of Things and Earth Repair | Design Agenda for Bioregions | Peak Car | Re-wilding the Bauhaus | The City as a Living System (a selection of my texts selected for publication by Resilience magazine) * May 13, 2020 earth repair | urban-rural THE CITY AS A LIVING SYSTEM: A DESIGN RESEARCH AGENDA Paving over the soil, and filling our lives with media, obscured our interdependency with living systems. We must learn to think of the places where we live as ecosystems, not as machines. (This was my first keynote in Shanghai) * May 12, 2020 most read FROM OIL AGE TO SOIL AGE: PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABILITY The word ‘transformation’ sounds uncontroversial - but does any of us has the right to transform somebody else’s life without them being part of the process? (An interview at Alison Clarke's Victor Papanek exhibition in Barcelona) * May 11, 2020 civic ecology CIVIC ECOLOGY AS A DESIGN SPACE What is innovative in design today? What urgent issues is the discipline tackling? For this special feature in Domus Magazine, Valentina Croci talks with Paola Antonelli, Aric Chen and John Thackara. Paola muses on the disturbed relation between us and nature, the subject of her (then) forthcoming show at the [continue …] * May 8, 2020 nature-connection WHEN VALUE ARISES FROM RELATIONSHIPS, NOT FROM THINGS Manifesto For Utopias Are Over | Healing the Metabolic Rift | Sustainability, Design and Old Growth | Tour of the New Economy | When Value Arises From Relationships, Not From Things (A selection of articles reposted by P2P Magazine) * February 29, 2020 nature-connection “PLAYING FOR TIME”: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE On the island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, a curious figure is handing out small packages to strangers in the high street. The young woman is dressed in orange, water-resistant clothes that are dirty, smelly and oversized. (On why art matters so much) * January 2, 2020 civic ecology IN AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION, PLACE IS OUR PROFESSOR The prospect of an ecological civilisation is transformative In three profound ways: care for place takes priority over ever-growing production and communication; value creation is defined in terms of healthy soils, and ecological restoration; 3 an EC gives priority to social relationships, and institutional innovation.(My keynote to the China Eco-Civilization Research and Promotion Association) * December 10, 2019 newsletter DECEMBER NEWSLETTER Tree-consciousness | Cotton Capitalism in India | 32 Case Study Collections | Learning journeys | Water museums | Social fermentation | Shanghai’s BIOfarm | Bioregional fiber economies 12Next TWITTER FEED john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 Follow 27,287 13,468 my work is about designing for all of life – and caring for place – within social and ecological systems (header pic Clare Humphrey) Retweet on Twitter john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 Retweeted ; Jessica Aldred @j_aldred · 7h 1785620747651596519 Greece will ban bottom trawling – a destructive form of fishing – in its national marine parks by 2026 and in all of its marine protected areas by 2030, making it “the first country to pledge to this”, @Euractiv reports Reply on Twitter 1785620747651596519 Retweet on Twitter 1785620747651596519 1 Like on Twitter 1785620747651596519 1 Twitter 1785620747651596519 ; john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 @johnthackara · 7h 1785616149822005529 "Transforming neighbourhoods: Setting up a New European Bauhaus hub". Call opens 7 May https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/port... Twitter feed image. Show Thread Reply on Twitter 1785616149822005529 Retweet on Twitter 1785616149822005529 0 Like on Twitter 1785616149822005529 0 Twitter 1785616149822005529 ; john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 @johnthackara · 7h 1785619546109321527 Also, the New European Bauhaus hub's stated mission - "collect, centralise, manage, monitor and exploit knowledge" - sounds *so* 1990s. No mention of knowledge ecosystems and their curation Reply on Twitter 1785619546109321527 Retweet on Twitter 1785619546109321527 0 Like on Twitter 1785619546109321527 0 Twitter 1785619546109321527 ; john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 @johnthackara · 7h 1785621523102831011 Also, the proposed hub has to "take inspiration from the New European Bauhaus Dashboard" about which - well, you be the judge https://web.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dashboard/NEB/index.html Twitter feed image. Reply on Twitter 1785621523102831011 Retweet on Twitter 1785621523102831011 0 Like on Twitter 1785621523102831011 0 Twitter 1785621523102831011 Retweet on Twitter john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 Retweeted ; Kate Aronoff @KateAronoff · 15h 1785494216589680710 Doesn’t seem like a total accident that the NYPD raids on students at Columbia and CCNY are happening at the same time that Rafah is under brutal siege Reply on Twitter 1785494216589680710 Retweet on Twitter 1785494216589680710 7275 Like on Twitter 1785494216589680710 14661 Twitter 1785494216589680710 Retweet on Twitter john thackara 约翰·萨卡拉 Retweeted ; SEWA Cooperative Federation @SEWAFed · 11h 1785554127722013155 On #internationalworkersday2024 ,we stand in solidarity with women workers every day, and will continue to support them in their struggles for recognition, social security, and workers rights. #LabourDay #WomenWorkers #WorkersDay #MayDay #WomensCollective Twitter feed video. Reply on Twitter 1785554127722013155 Retweet on Twitter 1785554127722013155 1 Like on Twitter 1785554127722013155 0 Twitter 1785554127722013155 Load More Tweets order at Amazon Publisher: Thames & Hudson Extent: 192pp Size: 23.4 x 15.6cm paperback isbn: 9780500292945 * Newsletter archive RECENT BLOG POSTS * Caring for Place vs Systems Thinking: Can They Meet? March 15, 2024 * Design for multi-species cities March 2, 2024 * New year, new MeetUp dates January 15, 2024 * 7-Day-Sabbaticals, the ecological turn in design, and other news November 30, 2023 * Infrastructures of care August 22, 2023 BLOG TOPICS * most read * biodiversity * bioregioning * care * civic ecology * commoning * development * earth repair * energy * food systems * green finance * knowing * moving * nature-connection * urban-rural johnthackara designing for life contact contact JOHNTHACKARA designing for life Toggle Navigation * Blog * About * About my work * Profile * Talks & Conversations * Publications * Urban-Rural Projects * Videos * Meet in France * Meet in France * MeetUp * Offsite * Retreat (self directed) * Handouts * Archive © The John Thackara blog and website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 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