The Nature of Design

"David Orr backs his talk with tactics and deeds that include his own actions. He convinced Oberlin College to construct a science building that 'did not impair human or ecological health somewhere else or at some later time.' That was a big order and not easily done, but he attracted and organized the multi-talented team that did it.... The chapter labeled 'Education, Careers, and Callings' is particularly fine, and presents...solid suggestions for doable changes in education that will be considered radical by many ecologically illiterate educators, but are certainly the way to go. Good stuff, easily read." --J. Baldwin, Whole Earth, Fall 2002

"The creativity of thought displayed is refreshing when compared to the hundreds of texts that criticise current practice without offering substitutes. And Orr's understanding of the role pysical surroundings play in human thinking inspires a vital alternative to the technological fundamentalism constricting so much current thought."--Ecologist

<br>David W. Orr is Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. He is the author of Ecological Literacy and Earth in Mind, as well as more than 100 published articles. Among other awards, he has received a Lyndhurst Prize Fellowship and the National Wildlife Federation's National Achievement Award.<br>

I. THE PROBLEM OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN; 1. Introduction: The Design of Culture and the Culture of Design; 2. Human Ecology as a Problem of Ecological Design; II. PATHOLOGIES AND BARRIERS; 3. Slow Knowledge; 4. Speed; 5. Verbicide; 6. Technological Fundamentalism; 7. Ideasclerosis; 8. Ideasclerosis, Continued; III. THE POLITICS OF DESIGN; 9. None So Blind: The Problem of Ecological Denial (with David Ehrenfeld); 10. Twine in the Baler; 11. Conservation and Conservatism; 12. The Politics Worthy of the Name; 13. The Limits of Nature and the Educational Nature of Limits; IV. DESIGN AS PEDAGOGY; 14. Architecture and Education; 15. The Architecture of Science; 16. 2020: A Proposal; 17. Education, Careers, and Callings; 18. A Higher Order of Heroism; V. CHARITY, WILDNESS, AND CHILDREN; 19. The Ecology of Giving and Consuming; 20. The Great Wilderness Debate, Again; 21. Loving Children: The Political Economy of Design; Bibliography; Index