Sustainability imaginaries by design

Abstract

As the scale and severity of our multiple environmental crises come into view, the question of digital technologies and how they can be designed sustainably becomes even more pressing. The starting point for this brief commentary is that technology is not just a neutral instrument to achieve sustainability but takes an active part in shaping what sustainability means in the first place. Digital technology, in other words, not only has material consequences but mediates the meaning of sustainability and takes part in the creation and dissemination of sustainability imaginaries: collectively held beliefs about the world and how to act on it in a sustainable manner. On this background, I argue that we are witnessing the emergence of a new sustainability imaginary that stands on three pillars: ontological entanglements, premised in the observation that everything is connected and could only be fully understood through those connections; inclusive epistemologies, rejecting the reductivism of Western rationalism in favor of “othered,” more situated forms of knowledge; and a politics of mutuality and care that mobilizes generosity and reciprocity as the basis of social life. I make use of several digital technologies to illustrate how these ingredients lend themselves to new digital sociotechnical practices that, in turn, may shape how we think about and pursue sustainability.