Collaborative Design Intervention in the Traditional Chinese Handicraft Sector for Enhancing Cultural Sustainability: New Channel Social Innovation Project

The study provides a flavour of the breadth of business models and practices contemporary UK craft-makers are adopting in response to a number of identified macrolevel challenges.The examples presented demonstrate that rather than becoming less significant, 'place' and the 'local' in contemporary craft-making are becoming ever more important.Advances in internet and digital technologies, globalisation and economic trends, and broader sustainability and environmental concerns are not only driving new forms of business innovation, but are strengthening relationships with 'place' and the 'local' in a number of key and distinct ways.This initial exploration highlights key trends towards new business models in a number of areas including: -Digital technology, business growth and localised production -The use of social media for marketing, engaging with customers and R&D -Diversification into other markets -Site-specific commissions -The potential for craft towns -Craft Tourism and rural regeneration -New routes to market -Ethical agendas, including sustainable making and consumption and local trading Digital technologies are helping grow makers' businesses by expanding scales of production while keeping production 'local'.Newly affordable digital fabrication technologies including digital printing, cutting and finishing services are also supporting localised craft production models.These technologies are also forging new relevance for craft practices with a broader range of craft consumers.For example, makers are now able to offer customisation options and some are using these technologies for co-designing personalised craft objects.Work and practice that references the maker's 'local' environment and the formation of personal narratives through, and of, place is increasingly seen as a response to globalised aesthetics.Although makers have arguably been slow to catch onto online selling, craft retail sites such as Etsy, Folksy and others have challenged the idea that buyers need to see and touch a craft object before purchase.Such sites have also increased the potential for small scale and often home based business models, particularly for women.Social media platforms and content-rich websites are being utilised in a number of innovative ways to develop stronger relationships between craft-makers and craft-consumers while promoting the quality and reliability of local craft objects and their provenance.Craft skills are increasingly being valued in other sectors of the economy, and makers are using their specialist knowledge of materials to diversify into other markets.This form of innovative business practice is increasingly important for sustaining portfolio craft careers.Of particular relevance to this research, a number of makers are working on wide-ranging architectural, public-realm, urban regeneration and built environment projects for both public and private commissions, where they are required to respond creatively to notions of 'place' and local identity.Many of the most cutting edge makers are also regularly commissioned to undertake innovative, site-specific projects, oftenThe two fold aim of this exploratory study is: Firstly, to help identify and define how the notion of 'place' is interpreted and expressed across the contemporary craft sector and in the role of making.Secondly, to explore how the changing concept of 'local' is impacting on the business models and practices of UK craft makers.