Objectives
From thesisWIKI
Contents |
OBJECTIVES: Environmental
Cultural shift
The world (and America in particular) is not making the necessary changes to address our global climate and population concerns. Because the opposing economic and lifestyle changes are so strong, additional stimuli are necessary to initiate change. Despite recent ecological awareness (the terms 'green' and 'sustainable' consistently appear in media - although they are often used incorrectly), society is not yet significantly basing everyday decisions on environmental concerns. In 2000, sociologist Manual Castells described that one dimension of social change for the 'new society' (Castells, 2000) was an ecological awareness and the role of science to shape it:
- "...progress in scientific knowledge, and the use of science to correct its own one-sided development, are redefining the relationship between culture and nature that characterized the industrial era. A deep ecological consciousness is permeating the human mind and affecting the way we live, produce, consume, and perceive ourselves. We are just at the beginning of a most extraordinary cultural transformation that is reversing the course of thought that has prevailed among the world's dominant groups since the Enlightenment. " pg 694
Behavior modification
Stimuli capable of initiating change can be overwhelming events or gradual trends that eventually reach a threshold, a theoretical tipping point, where people modify their decision making. Catastrophes are examples of sudden initiators of societal change. Environmental events such as Hurricane Katrina or human initiated events like 9-11 have large initial reactions. Unfortunately, their impact in creating real, everyday lifestyle changes fades rather quickly and society often reverts back to established ways.
Gradual forces can have less capacity to trigger radical change because the time variable allows people to adjust and adapt their tolerance levels before effectively creating change. A present example of gradual change involves America's use of oil. If asked, most Americans probably would like energy independence from foreign resources and would also like to be more environmentally responsible. Only a small percentage of those people substantially act on these concerns when making consumer choices. Perhaps money is the dominant variable that can initiate radical change. If the price of gas eventually gets higher, more people will modify their behavior. Currently, most Americans are adjusting their tolerance to high gas prices rather than adjusting their habits. Current consumer trends towards alternative technology and transportation, although changing, can only be classified as conservative falling far short of the radical changes necessary to address environmental concerns.
Synergies
In order to take a 'preemptive strike' approach to manage our global climate issues, stimuli with the power to initiate radical change needs to be pursued. In a top down strategy, governments can take a leading role as powerful entities capable of unified global regulation. At a more individual scale, 'no.D' proposes that innovation together with service design is capable of initiating relevant change by introducing creative or simply more convenient products and experiences. The hypothesis suggests that creativity and convenience are mutual factors capable of reconciling environmental responsibility and consumer economics. Without the convenience of the iTunes service, Apple's iPod would not be as popular. Likewise, the strength of 'no.D' will be synergy of architectural design and service.
OBJECTIVES: Social
Global connectivity
