Designs for the Pluriverse

Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds is a 2018 book by the Colombian-American anthropologist Arturo Escobar on design theory. It is a revised English translation of the author's 2016 book Autonomía y diseño: La realización de lo comunal, which was published in Spanish with a Creative Commons license. The title of the English book refers to a pluriverse or a 'multiplicity of worlds' where different forms of life and knowing exist. It has been described both as a call-for-action book and a how-to manual. Designs for the Pluriverse is currently required reading in some development studies programs. Before the book's publication in 2018, an unpublished manuscript was shared among anthropologists and design researchers.

In the book, Escobar criticizes capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy and proposes such approaches as 'design for transitions' and 'autonomous design' to address some of the challenges facing humanity and bring about cultural, economic, and political transformation. Escobar uses the examples of indigenous and Afro-descended people in Latin America to illustrate his arguments. The book draws on the works of such authors as Ivan Illich, Tony Fry, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, and Thomas Berry, among others.