Swiss Graphic Design Histories offers an entirely new redefinition of Switzerland's graphic design landscape. Based on extensive research by scholars of design history and with a multiple and inclusive approach, it reaches beyond the usual canon and the well-know epicentres Basel and Zurich with the germanophone fathers of what has become famous as the Swiss Style in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In three volumes it features visual artefacts and archival documents, the majority published here for the first time, alongside likewise previously unpublished conversations with designers who have forged developments of the past decades, as well as new essays discussing key terms that refer to various design practices. The complexity of the undertaking is embraced through a system of keywords, thus enabling readers to connect contents within the individual volumes. A fourth volume comprising a glossary, bibliography, and an index of the keywords rounds out this long-awaited new survey of graphic design in multi-lingual Switzerland that sheds new light on networks, practices and media largely ignored so far.

In its constructive and speculative nature, design has the critical potential to reshape prevalent socio-material realities. At the same time, design is inevitably normative, if not often violent, as it stabilises the past, normalises the present, and precludes just and sustainable futures. The contributions rethink concepts of critique that influence the field of design, question inherent blind spots of the discipline, and expand understandings of what critical design practices could be. With contributions from design theory, practice and education, art theory, philosophy, and informatics, "Critical by Design?" aims to question and unpack the ambivalent tensions between design and critique.

Citizens expect their governments to lead on sustainability. But from largely disappointing international conferences like Rio II to the U.S.'s failure to pass meaningful climate legislation, governments' progress has been lackluster. That's not to say leadership is absent; it just often comes from the bottom up rather than the top down. Action--on climate, species loss, inequity, and other sustainability crises--is being driven by local, people's, women's, and grassroots movements around the world, often in opposition to the agendas pursued by governments and big corporations. These diverse efforts are the subject of the latest volume in the Worldwatch Institute's highly regarded State of the World series. The 2014 edition, marking the Institute's 40th anniversary, examines both barriers to responsible political and economic governance as well as gridlock-shattering new ideas. The authors analyze a variety of trends and proposals, including regional and local climate initiatives, the rise of benefit corporations and worker-owned firms, the need for energy democracy, the Internet's impact on sustainability, and the importance of eco-literacy. A consistent thread throughout the book is that informed and engaged citizens are key to better governance. The book is a clear-eyed yet ultimately optimistic assessment of citizens' ability to govern for sustainability. By highlighting both obstacles and opportunities, State of the World 2014 shows how to effect change within and beyond the halls of government. This volume will be especially useful for policymakers, environmental nonprofits, students of environmental studies, sustainability, or economics--and citizens looking to jumpstart significant change around the world.

The news is perplexing. Both the president and vice president of the United States have fallen ill with mysterious, flu-like symptoms. It is not long before both me receive the same devastating diagnosis: pancreatic cancer. But that is not the worst of it. Soon, many in Congress and the Supreme Court start to exhibit the same symptoms. In less than four months, the president is dead, the vice president is barely hanging onto life, and one-third of Congress is deceased. Unfortunately, the United States is not the only country ravaged by the scourge. By the time research leads medical experts to determine that only Muslims seem to be immune to the plague, most governments around the world are left with few survivors. As a Muslim takes over the presidency of the United States, he declares that the cancer spares no one except true believers in Allah. After he urges nonbelievers to convert to Islam in an effort to stop the population from dying off forever, a ban on pork and alcoholic beverages is put into place. But it is not long before experts discover what is truly causing the epidemic: a sinister virus. In this political thriller, the world is thrown into turmoil as a powerful group of evil saboteurs hold the future of humanity hostage.

The news is perplexing. Both the president and vice president of the United States have fallen ill with mysterious, flu-like symptoms. It is not long before both me receive the same devastating diagnosis: pancreatic cancer. But that is not the worst of it. Soon, many in Congress and the Supreme Court start to exhibit the same symptoms. In less than four months, the president is dead, the vice president is barely hanging onto life, and one-third of Congress is deceased. Unfortunately, the United States is not the only country ravaged by the scourge. By the time research leads medical experts to determine that only Muslims seem to be immune to the plague, most governments around the world are left with few survivors. As a Muslim takes over the presidency of the United States, he declares that the cancer spares no one except true believers in Allah. After he urges nonbelievers to convert to Islam in an effort to stop the population from dying off forever, a ban on pork and alcoholic beverages is put into place. But it is not long before experts discover what is truly causing the epidemic: a sinister virus. In this political thriller, the world is thrown into turmoil as a powerful group of evil saboteurs hold the future of humanity hostage.

Environmental Decline, Social Conflict, and the New Age of Insecurity

This new book from the Worldwatch Institute sketches the shape of a new balance in security investments--one that de-emphasizes military means and territorial security and accentuates the environmental aspects of security. Accelerating social, economic, and environmental pressures are now undermining the security of societies around the world, according to security expert Michael Renner. Since the end of the Cold War, a volatile mix of environmental degradation, inequitable distribution of land and wealth, ethnic antagonisms, and rapid population growth is producing social and political strife, and even causing the wholesale disintegration of countries.

The author argues that true security has less to do with how many tanks or soldiers a country can marshal and more with how well it protects its arable lands and watersheds and how well it manages to meet peoples social and economic needs. Military means are often irrelevant or even counterproductive in this new security equation; they are a depreciating asset. At a time when the United Nations has been devoting a sharply higher share of its resources to peacekeeping, while reducing spending on basic environmental and economic development, this new book provides a wake-up call for policy makers around the world.

Michael Renner, a senior researcher at Worldwatch, lives in New York City.

This annual volume shows key trends that should be integrated into the planning of our global future. It enables readers to track key indicators that show social, economic and environmental progress, or the lack of it, into 45 vital signs of our time. Each trend is presented in both text and graphics, providing an overview.