Craft as Leverage for Sustainable Design Transformation: A Theoretical Foundation

Abstract

Traditional craft is often perceived as going against the flow of technological, economic and societal progress. However, emergent research is rediscovering the nature of craft and its potential for contributing to contemporary manufacturing and sustainability. Based on literature, this paper presents an interpretation of craft from three perspectives: practical, epistemological and ontological. Through an analysis of the nature of craft and making, and a comprehensive understanding of design for sustainability, the relationship between craft and sustainability is summarized in terms of accordances and tensions. The contribution of this paper is to: (1) explore practices and meanings of craft in relation to sustainability; and (2) illustrate one lens on the theoretical framing of the relationship between craft and contemporary understandings of sustainability. We argue that craft, as a system of making, knowing and being, has significant potential to contribute to transition, serving as an agency for sustainable transformation.

Keywords:

• craft
• making
• sustainable design
• leverage
• transformative change

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. The paper is an expanded and revised version of a paper presented in the 7th IASDR Conference in Cincinnati, 2017. We would like to thank the interviewees who contributed to this research and the people who gave us valuable feedbacks in the 7^th IASDR conference.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Address for correspondence

Xiaofang Zhan, Imagination Lancaster Design Research Centre, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 Research visit to Jingdezhen in China for the Design Ecologies Project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) in collaboration with the China Academy of Social Sciences, May and September 2017.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiaofang Zhan

Xiaofang Zhan is a PhD candidate at ImaginationLancaster Design Research Centre and a Visiting Researcher at the Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester. Prior to this she was a Lecturer in product design at Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai. Her research focuses on craft, philosophy of making and design for sustainability.

Stuart Walker

Stuart Walker is Chair of Design for Sustainability and Co-Director of the ImaginationLancaster Research Centre, Lancaster University. His practice-based research explores environmental, social and spiritual aspects of design and sustainability. His latest books, Design Roots and Design Realities, were published by Routledge in 2017 and 2018.