A Cultural Study and Political Ecology of Nike "Air Jordans" STEPHEN PETRINA University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada E-mail: stephen.petrina@ubc.ca Keywords: cultural studies, design, design and technology education, ecodesign, ecopedagogy, Nike, political ecology, circuit of culture, Air Jordans Forget the methods until you get the atmosphere right, then choose a method that fits that. (Jones quoted in Mitchell, 1993, p. 57) International Journal of Technology and Design Education 10, 207–237, 2000. EXCERPTED FROM: Petrina, S. (2001). The political ecology of design and technology education: An inquiry into methods. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 10, 207-237. Using the political ecology of Nike shoes as an example, I describe ecological footprints, resource streams, and wakes as effective metaphors for sustainable practice. In contra- distinction to technocentric methods, I argue for modelling ecocentric processes rooted in political ecology and cultural studies. Attending to the political ecology of design and tech- nology means nothing less than remodelling the design of lifestyles and reducing production and consumption in our practice. Using a political ecology of Nike shoes as an example, I argue that con- ventional design, and technological problem solving methods are inadequate for understanding contemporary design practises. These methods are unsustainable as they fail to account for life cycles, streams and wakes. And whether in school or in the workplace, this is an issue of accountability. Conventional methods – ‘Generate Solutions’, ‘Choose, Model, and Test the Best Solutions’, and ‘Implement and Evaluate the Design’ – embody values that are unsustainable in terms of political ecology. These methods assume a separation of means from ends, and in this praxiological sense, the means-ends distinction is left unquestioned. As is indicated in the case of something as mundane as a pair of shoes, the process of designing or technological problem solving is implicated in complex political ecologies where means are inseparable from ends. As a step away from technocentric models that make streams and wakes invisible, I argue for current notions of life cycles and cultural circuits, or models that make political ecology visible.