Local adequacy as a design strategy in place-based making

ABSTRACT

This article examines continuing appropriation of products and materials through the term ‘local adequacy’ and provides an alternative perspective on grassroots strategies of exercising control over technology by (re)connecting with the place of its making and using. To observe and document these strategies, we examine areas with challenging natural and infrastructural conditions, where local inhabitants collectively undertake creative action for building a comfortable living environment. Three cases in remote areas of Russia show that local adequacy is formed though identities reflected in both practical and symbolic value of products, competences that allow products to be used, maintained, and upgraded; and materials through which makers are included in a broader economic and technological context.

KEYWORDS:

• Remoteness
• transport vehicle
• grassroots
• user community
• DIY
• Russia

Acknowledgments

Svetlana Usenyuk-Kravchuk and Alexandra Raeva acknowledge funding from the Russian Science Foundation, grant No. 17-78-20047 (2020-2022). They also thank their colleagues Ilya Abramov and Daria Zhukovskaya for participating in the fieldwork and providing their field materials for further interpretation and reflection. Sampsa Hyysalo acknowledges funding from Academy of Finland for the project PROFI-6, project No. 336454 (2021-2026) . All authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful remarks and suggestions that helped to improve the quality of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [336454]; Russian Science Foundation [17-78-20047].