Design in a Time of Climate Emergency

Design has never been its usual ‘discipline-self’ at the OU. For 50 years we’ve been teaching and researching design through the lens of ‘beyond discipline’ - exploring multi- scale relationships, technologies, systems and environments in richer ways to further open up a design landscape.

We talk to four OU academics interested in the relationship between design and the environment in looking at new ways to see the potential of design today – specifically in the context of a changing climate – and looking back to what we build on from the OU thinking of the last 50 years. We ask why creative approaches to climate change are critical and how design can help facilitate a shift to the transformative thinking and actions that emergencies demand.

Stephen Peake: Professor of Climate Change and Energy at the Open University (UK), Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School and Senior Associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He often uses practice-based methods of inquiry in his teaching and research which focusses on sustainable business practice and leadership

Emma Dewberry: Senior Lecturer in Design at the Open University (UK). Emma’s teaching and research focuses on design for sustainability and specifically on the relationships between design, consumption, sufficiency, resource circularity, ecoliteracy and transformative education.

Derek Jones: Senior Lecturer in Design at The Open University (UK), part of the OU Design Group, and the Convenor of the DRS Education SIG. His main research interests are design education, theories of design knowledge, and ecological philosophy (ecosophy).

Alessandra Campoli: Lecturer in Design at The Open University (UK). She is interested in creative activism, the role of design in generating reflexive engagement with social and climate justice issues, sustainable pedagogies, and art-based methodologies to reach and work with marginalised communities.