Michiel Schwarz

"Sustainism" ("a new word for a new world") is the central concept that drives my current projects. The term was launched in the book I created with Joost Elffers in 2010: "Sustainism Is the New Modernism: A Cultural Manifesto for the Sustainist Era" (New York, DAP/Distributed Art Publishers, New York). http://www.sustainism.com. In manifesto form it brings together many of the themes and issues central to my work over the last twenty-five years. At the same time it's the conceptual frame for my own "research agenda" for the coming years.
Tim Brown (CEO and chairman of IDEO design consultancy, California, USA) about our sustainist manifesto: " Sustainism will drive the creativity of the 21st century".
The word "sustainism" has now been used in over twenty countries. My favourite is "sostenismo" in both Italian and Spanish.

More about me:
Trained as a sociologist of technology (University of London, PhD) much of my work has been concerned with how technology shapes culture, and how that affects the future. Over the last decades my commisioned research, writing and consultancies typically have been on the crossovers over different domains: culture, media, technology, social trends. As advisor, producer and curator I have initiated (public) projects concerned with culture, innovation, design, media & cultural policy, information society, architecture & urban planning.
In 2006 – together with Diana Krabbendam and Jan van Tiel – I co-founded of The Beach, Amsterdam-based network organisation for "creatieve innovatie." Currently I am developing projects from my own Sustainism Lab, conducting consultencies and lecturing about the the new culture of sustainism.