ABSTRACT
In precipitating positive change, design has the potential to make a valuable contribution, but people must bear in mind that the kind of contribution required goes far deeper than technological efficiencies or the creation of eco-gadgets. This chapter considers the magnitude and nature of change required to address contemporary environmental and social concerns, and the role of design in contributing to such change. With its roots in southern Europe, the Renaissance is characterized by a self-conscious development of individuality, and the emergence of individualism and the modern identity. The modern sensibility, despite its many, many achievements and benefits, actually represents a profound contraction or disambiguation in understandings – a narrowing of outlook that prioritizes certain aspects of the human condition to the detriment of others. Accompanying modernity's philosophical, scientific and technological developments was a will to power that became manifested in the form of capitalism and was attended by a rise in bureaucracies.
