The Princes Foundation ‘Accounting for Sustainability’ project published an image that inverts the hierarchy of the relationship between the economy and ecology in a particularly unhelpful manner Here the global gross domestic product (GGDP) is illustrated as $63,000bn and the value provided by the Earth to the global economy is $50,800bn (Accounting for Sustainability, 2012). These numbers misrepresent reality. We will not have an economy without stable ecological system in which the economy is based and so it is illogical to value ecosystem services as less than total GGDP.

Today I signed a contract with Berg / Bloomsbury Academic Publishers for a book called Design/ Ecology/ Politics: Within and Beyond Error, due April 2015.

Design/Ecology/Politics is a clear articulation of the powerful role for design – once informed by ecological literacy and critical perspectives. This book moves the debate in sustainable design beyond its narrow focus on the design of marginally more sustainable consumer products. Ecological theory exposes philosophical problems at the root of the environmental crisis. Social theory exposes the social and political function of design. This book will describe the relationship between these three dynamics. While there are prominent movements in design working towards socially responsive practice, these efforts are hampered by the manner in which power relations are constructed, reproduced and obfuscated by design. Revealing these dynamics creates new possibilities for transformative practice – i.e. design which will create ways of living enabling human prosperity…