Ergonomics in a Sustainable Society. Well-being and Social Inclusion

The risk of irreversibility of some natural phenomena puts more dramatically the need for a transformation process involving the entire socio-technical and cultural systems of contemporary society with a view to “sustainability”. In order to let this transformation occurs, it first requires a thorough redefinition of the meaning that each individual and community attaches to the concept of quality of life and, ultimately, to the idea of “wellbeing”, surpassing its “traditional” vision, which is still based on consumption, often “exclusive” of goods. In fact, until to the idea of "exclusivity" of a product shall continue to bind only the positive concepts of refinement, uniqueness and preciousness, it consolidates an individualistic, personalistic, and sometimes selfish conception of society. We should instead try to overturn this view, emphasizing the concept of “inclusiveness”, ie of enjoyment of each artifact by “all”. Starting from a possible evolution of the concept of wellness in ergonomics, the chapter shows how the Design for All approach can help to revise its principles in an "inclusive" way and, indeed, with a special attention to sustainability.