Document Type
Review
Abstract
[First paragraph]
In Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World, Alastair Fuad-Luke approaches the topic of design activism from the fresh perspective of the strained relationship between aesthetics and sustainability. His main thesis is that if design is to succeed in contributing to a more sustainable world, then its key mission is to develop a new idea of beauty, which the author calls ‘beautiful strangeness’, and which he believes can be achieved by creating design counter-narratives to oppose today’s dominant idea of beauty. However, rather than pursuing a theoretical examination of the triangular relationship between aesthetics, sustainability and design, the book’s stated purpose is to map out design’s vast sphere of influence in the world today in order to locate the arenas where designers can practically exert an influence towards creating a more sustainable world. To this end, Design Activism comprehensibly plots a nearly encyclopedic amount of information related to design and sustainability. The organization of the information is supported by exceptionally communicative graphs, charts, drawings and high-quality color images. As such, it is a fine successor to Fuad-Luke’s equally practically minded previous books, such as The Eco-Design Handbook (2004) and The Eco-Travel Handbook (2008).
Repository Citation
Meroz, Joana. "Review of Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World, by Alastair Fuad-Luke." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 10, no. 3, 2010, pp. 1–5. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol10/iss3/28