Ezio Manzini  is one of the world's leading and provocative thinkers in design for sustainability and social innovation — considered a major driver of sustainable changes. These two joint interests led him to start DESIS: an international network of schools of design specifically active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability. Currently, Ezio is President of DESIS Network and Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been guest professor in several design schools world-wide such as Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape town), and Parsons - The new School for Design (NYC). Ezio has written many books and papers on service design and social innovation. His most recent books are: 'Design, When Everybody Designs', 'Politics of the Everyday’ and lately 'Livable Proximity’.

In this episode, Ezio invites us to reimagine the role of design in building a sustainable and resilient world. In particular, he talks about how our contemporary society has become a “careless society” and how design can help create conditions that afford care and nurture relations. He highlights the complex relation between care and proximity and based on his most recent book, discusses the notion of livable proximity and how a city that cares look like. Finally, he discusses the notion of social innovation, and stresses that if there is value in emergent, bottom-up social innovation, we need to nurture them and that this requires a new type of social infrastructure.

To learn more about DESIS: https://www.desisnetwork.org/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier