Migrating reefs, unprecedented species assemblages, neophytes, toxicities, pollutants, aquatic ruins – The future of coral reefs in the Anthropocene is likely to look different from anything we have experienced so far. While the classic conservation debate on coral reef restoration still treats these ecosystems as “sick patients,” a radically different view of convivial conservation is beginning to challenge exclusive human control over these endangered habitats. Putting aside notions of natural “purity” and adopting a much more humble and highly interconnected perspective on marine habitats, we can begin to see reefs as transformative, sympoïetic and blasted seascapes for a convivial future. The discipline of biodesign has been primarily focussed on researching ecological relationships with regard to new materials and products. The emerging interest in shaping the multi-layered ecological relationships of habitats for other-than-human lives, however, is steering design practice towards terraforming or, in the case of marine environments, “aquaforming.” This paper argues for taking convivial conservation practices in marine environments as a starting point for the development of a new design methodology that focuses on the design of living systems in open environments: a proposed methodology called Sympoïetic Design.

Global awareness about an increase of chronic diseases and premature mortality due to ‘unhealthy eating’ and ‘sedentary lifestyles’ is embedded in various discourses shaped by relationships and power. In this article, I investigate the role of physical activity in the lives of middle-aged women in Australia and how their experiences with exercise influence the way they position themselves within the context of inter-discursivity regarding fitness and ‘healthy ageing’. Results reveal how ‘knowledge’ about ‘healthy lifestyles’ is created and accessed, and how women make sense of the healthism discourse, the obesity crisis, and discourses around menopause and ageing. The participants for this study are nine women in their forties to sixties who volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews after completing an online survey about physical activity that was part of a larger project. Their accounts of health and fitness, healthy eating, weight management, mental wellbeing and ageing are categorised and interpreted in a post-structuralist framework through the lens of feminist relational discourse analysis. Results show that all women are influenced by healthism discourses as well as being affected by assumptions and recommendations for ageing, menopausal women. They shape female identity by adopting, but also by resisting, discourses around their bodies and minds.