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This important new book argues that at the root of the contemporary crisis of climate, energy, food, inequality, and meaning is a certain core presupposition that structures the ways in which we live, think, act and design: the assumption of dualism, or the fundamental separateness of things.The authors contend that the key to constructing livable worlds lies in the cultivation of ways of knowing and acting based on a profound awareness of the fundamental interdependence of everything that exists – what they refer to as relationality. This shift in paradigm is necessary for healing our bodies, ecosystems, cities, and the planet at large. The book follows two interwoven threads of argumentation: on the one hand, it explains and exemplifies the modes of operation and the dire consequences of non-relational living; on the other, it elucidates the nature of relationality and explores how it is embodied in transformative practices in multiple spheres of life.The authors provide an instructive account of the philosophical, scientific, social, and political sources of relational theory and action, with the aim of illuminating the transition from living within seemingly ineluctable'toxic loops'of unrelational living (based on ontological dualism), to living within'relational weaves'which we might co-create with multiple human and nonhuman others.

Die »Gestaltung von Gesellschaft« wird zunehmend zum Anspruch unterschiedlicher Designausrichtungen wie zum Beispiel Social Design oder Public Interest Design. Damit verbunden ist die Vorstellung eines positiven Beitrags zu den gegenwärtigen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit. Hieraus ergeben sich vielfältige Überschneidungen mit anderen Disziplinen, zum Beispiel der Sozialen Arbeit, die sich ebenfalls im »Feld des Sozialen« verorten und darauf abzielen, soziales Miteinander zu beobachten, zu initiieren und zu begleiten. Mit der Überzeugung, voneinander lernen zu können, beleuchten die Beiträge des Bandes die Bedingungen, Formen und potenziellen Folgen einer kollaborativen Gesellschaftsgestaltung.