> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://forforest.gitbook.io/for/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://forforest.gitbook.io/for/for-en/context/2-designing-a-plural-world.md).

# 2 Designing a plural world

To break through the deadlock of the modern paradigms that are driving the climate crisis and social challenges into deeper crisis, a major paradigm shift is underway in the field of design as well, just as in other fields. Amid the search for a range of approaches such as speculative design, transition design, and participatory design, cultural anthropologist Arturo Escobar advocates moving beyond modern dualistic approaches toward "ontological design" for a "pluriverse"—a world in which many worlds can coexist. Design has the power to fundamentally remake how we perceive the world and how we exist within it. That is why Escobar’s central claim is that we should reconstruct design on the basis of the interdependence of life, so that diverse local communities can exist autonomously.

FoR is being developed on the basis of design thinking related to the pluriverse. Currency is by no means a colorless, transparent medium of exchange; it is an ontological foundation that powerfully determines how we relate to others and to the natural environment. If that is so, then the core of FoR, which seeks to move beyond the economic dualism that externalizes nature, can be understood as redesigning a currency that plays a part in the pluriverse.

In this chapter, we begin with a discussion of currency grounded in Escobar’s theory, and then take a broad view of insights from Lana Swartz’s media theory on money and anthropological theories of gift exchange to examine the potential of FoR as a currency. We then consider ReFi (Regenerative Finance), a pioneering form of digital currency aimed at regenerating nature, as a precedent for alternative currencies, as well as the challenges ReFi faces. Finally, as a theoretical architecture for overcoming these limitations, we present the prospects of "Ethereum Localism" and "Bioregional Finance," and clarify the theoretical background on which FoR is founded.

***

**References**

* Escobar, A. (2024). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds (supervised translation by Daijiro Mizuno, Tomohide Mizuuchi, Atsuro Morita, and Hayato Kanzaki; translated by Edward Masui, Tanehiro Ogata, Yusatoshi Okuda, Taku Onozato, Ema Huffman, Yuki Hayashi, and Mizuki Miyamoto). BNN. (Original work published 2018)


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