'Cultural shift: Sustainism as a way of looking, thinking and doing (and how it recasts notions of development, localisation and social change)'

Background

With the term ‘sustainism’ Michiel Schwarz marks a cultural paradigm shift, after 20th century modernism and postmodernism.

Often driven by bottom-up developments, grass roots organisations and civic initiatives he observes a movement toward a new ‘sustainist culture’: a new ethos and praxis that is more connected, locally-rooted, collaborative, respectful of the human scale, and altogether more environmentally and socially sustainable.
In this lecture Michiel Schwarz shares his sustainist perspective on the future, and explores how it recasts notions of globalisation and development, whilst opening the way for new forms of ‘commons,’ a re-appraisal of the local, and civic-led social change, especially in the way people collectively ‘design’ their living environment.

About the speaker

Michiel Schwarz is a Dutch independent future thinker, sociological researcher, and cultural consultant, based in Amsterdam.
He is the co-creator of the much-discussed 2010 manifesto Sustainism Is the New Modernism (with Joost Elffers; published in New York) coining the word ‘sustainism’ for the next cultural paradigm.
He has a background in the sociology of technology (Sussex University), UK), and holds a PhD from the University of London. His most recent publications are Street Values (ed. with Riemer Knoop, Amsterdam University of the Arts, 2017), A Sustainist Lexicon (2016) and Sustainist Design Guide (with Diana Krabbendam, 2013). Under the banner of his Sustainism Lab he is currently developing projects on sustainist culture, including research collaboration with Reinwardt Academy ((Amsterdam University of the Arts), The Beach social design hub (Amsterdam), and with the Indian social designer Jogi Panghaal (Woxsen School or Art and Design, Hyderabad).