Located Making: Unlocking the Potential of Cultural Heritage by Design

There is increasing recognition today, through initiatives such as UK's Radcliffe Red List and UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage Programme, of the contemporary value of heritage-based maker practices. Heritage-based material culture is often strongly rooted in community, place, materials and traditions. They express local knowledge and contribute to a deeper sense of identity and belonging. As such, they offer a stable counterpoint to our fast-changing, digital lifestyles.

While there is a renaissance of interest in heritage making in both the UK and China, there needs to be a better understanding of how this translates into growth in the creative economy that is respectful of cultural legacy. The application of design research expertise offers a way of unlocking the potential of such traditional material cultures by helping ensure they are relevant and meaningful to contemporary needs. Investigating the ability of design to reveal the potential of this cultural heritage provides the catalyst for this collaborative research in the creative economy - between academics in design, fashion and ethnology, businesses and policy makers.

The aim of Located Making is to develop a practical framework for unlocking the potential of cultural heritage by design. This framework, for use by policy-makers, heritage sector organisations and academics, will include a robust co-developed methodology suited to the Chinese context, a step-by-step pathway for identifying principal goals and developing feasible strategies, as well as real world examples and insights. Application of the framework will enable cultural heritage-based making practices in China to benefit economically and socio-culturally from design expertise.

The project will investigate how design expertise can increase the visibility and perceived value of heritage-based making practices in China in ways that accord with sustainability, decent jobs, economic growth and community. To do this, UK and Chinese researchers, in conjunction with private and public sector partners and advisors will: 1) Undertake a series of place-based case studies of cultural heritage making practices in China to assess historical, contextual and stakeholder priorities; 2) Co-create strategies that will increase the visibility and perceived value of heritage-based making practices in ways that stimulate the economy in ways that value people, place and community; 3) Synthesise research insights into generalisable forms that can be adapted to a variety of contexts and elicit feedback to maximise adoption, implementation and impact; and 4) Develop a practical framework for the Chinese context that includes a step-by-step pathway for identifying development opportunities for heritage-based making practices, principal goals, as well as effective strategies for their achievement.

Located Making will generate benefits for academics and non-academics through fostering innovative partnerships among researchers, businesses, makers, sector organisations and policy advisers, extending understanding of how design expertise can increase the visibility and value of heritage-based making practices, and enhancing strategic development capabilities in the heritage-based maker sector in China.

Building on the four key identified impacts in our Pathways to Impact, here we expand on who we envisage benefiting from this research and develop further how they might benefit:

i1) To extend understanding of how design expertise can increase the visibility and value of heritage-based making practices for craftspeople, makers and designers thereby stimulating opportunities that lead to sustainable and inclusive economic growth in China. The project employs an original three stage methodology, developed from field research studies and adapted to suit the Chinese context. It offers a comprehensive, systematic approach to understanding the priorities of the various stakeholders and the attributes and challenges of a particular context with respect to heritage craft making practices and products. This enables the identification of appropriate design opportunities and interventions, leading to development goals and strategies. This approach will contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth in China among micro-enterprises, craftspeople, makers, and associated businesses including suppliers, buyers and retailers.

i2) To increase opportunities in the UK and China for fostering innovative partnerships among researchers, businesses, sector organisations and policy advisers in order to increase understanding of the role of heritage-based making practices in the creative economy. Cross-disciplinary perspectives and understandings will help reveal the relationship of heritage-based aspects of the creative sector to the economy and to sustainable patterns of growth. Hence, the approach will expand current understandings of the creative economy among makers and their associated stakeholders including suppliers, retailers and intermediaries, as well as heritage-related organisations and government departments.

i3) To enhance development capabilities in the heritage-based maker sector in China by using design-led research expertise to inform enterprise goals and strategies in order to increase visibility and perceived value of indigenous making practices and associated products. The use of systematic field research methods combined with cross-disciplinary knowledge and perspectives provides a robust basis for ascertaining priority areas for design, innovation and development for future resilience. Also, an online maker showcase will foreground Chinese indigenous expertise in heritage-based craft making to both raise its visibility and convey its cultural provenance and significance to makers, intermediaries, businesses, retailers, consumers and public sector organisations. This work will inform designers, businesses and those in the public sector involved with local and regional economic development.

i4) To forge closer ties, mutual understanding and future development opportunities by enriching the sense of community among makers, policy advisers, heritage sector organizations and academics. Dissemination via business-oriented journals, website and social media, the visualisation of information, and two symposia planned in the latter part of the project, one in China and one in the UK, including a webinar, will enable the priorities, relationships and interdependencies among the various stakeholders to be made transparent, thus promoting common understandings and constructive alliances. Through such means the applicability and usefulness of design research in the creative economy related to place will provide a basis for building on existing understandings of design and its relation to cultural heritage. This will be of significant interest to organisations in the UK such as the Crafts Council, Heritage Crafts Association, Regional Development (LEPs), tourism etc., and, in China, to those involved in furthering China's UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Programme, as well as in development, policy and the creative economy in rural and/or under-developed regions.