The aim for this project is to explore how we can define and foster a healthy relationship between people, the internet and things using the ethos and practices of craft, informed by knowledge within the humanities, augmented with technical know-how and leveraging citizen engagement/collaboration. The internet is a powerful force in society. Since the inception of the World Wide Web, the internet was held up as a place of wonder, creativity and opportunity. Yet it is currently in a very problematic position: fake news, centralisation of power, the dominant control of a select number of technology giants, disinformation, the weaponization of social media, the undermining of democratic processes, mass manipulation of citizens, cyber crimes and abuse of personal data are internationally recognised as areas of significant concern. As more and more everyday objects become internet-connected, become part of the Internet of Things (IoT), these questions of trust, privacy, security and abuse of data will become more pressing, as anxieties over the eavesdropping capabilities of smart speakers such as Alexa demonstrate. Furthermore, it is widely recognised, and even promoted, that industrial design has led to a step-change in the way that digital technology companies are able to significantly amplify the reach of their products (Apple being the most obvious example). Yet this has led to a wholly unsustainable, homogeneous, global culture of two-year life-cycle devices and an internet that is being 'colonised' by a handful of US and Chinese companies. These issues are not ones that can be addressed exclusively with technological innovation and instrumental solutions. They require initiatives that consider the social and ethical implications and consequences (intended or not) of the underlying ethos and structure on which internet businesses are founded. We will be partnering with Mozilla, and inspired by their Internet Health Report, we are challenging existing 'unhealthy' ways in which the IoT is being conceptualised and implemented (i.e. privileging economic business models over user agency, lacking openness, transparency and legibility) and provide an alternative 'healthier' trajectory for IoT development. While design often aspires to ubiquity and standardisation, craft thrives on specificity and bespokeness, which is often rooted in localism, and embodies the values of authenticity, provenance and care. Through working at a local level, in terms of both consideration and production, we seek to bring new perspectives and methods for conceptualizing and creating forms of IoT, embodying our craft ethos. As such we will create compelling examples of context specific, meaningful and trusted forms IoT in order to explore and understand the ways that we can change current trajectories across the sector. Based in the North East of England, this project will work closely with local groups, businesses, organisations and individuals, alongside experts from design, craft and the Humanities to critique existing IoT offerings. Craft centred explorations will result in radical reimaginings of what an IoT artifact might be and do, falling outside established IoT tropes (E.g. Amazon Echo, Google Nest, LG's Alexa powered fridge). These will inform participatory co-design activities and the production of a series of new IoT devices that participants will live with over several months. The project will investigate four scales of relationship between individual people, the internet and things: Person + Body, Person + Home, Person + Neighbourhood, Person + Town/Rural region. These contexts of scale will enable the investigation of meaningful and sustainable forms of relationship between an individual and their wider environment at a number of levels, ultimately providing a resource of radical new exemplars of IoT and a roadmap to a healthier digital future (i.e. recommendations for new approaches to, and conceptualisations of IoT).

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.

This research will undertake a systematic review of practices of online/offline participation within craft related communities of practice and communities of interest. Addressing both scholarly literature and contemporary trends, this review will address the development of new cultures of communication within online/offline communities linked to craft, and the role of creativity in shaping those cultures. This project will also review the new cultural, social and economic practices in the crafting movement, in relation to online/offline practices of community building. It will analyse how the adoption of ICT tools has shaped the connections, practices and processes that constitute craft communities. These tools include the Internet, social media, Web 2.0 applications, and using digital technologies in the production of craft objects themselves. This review understands online/offline craft communities as dynamic processes, rather than static entities. It will explore the limits to distinctions between online/offline, virtual and real subjects, to show how making materially mediates these complex temporally dynamic communities. This understanding raises a number of questions: what are the distinctions and overlaps between communities of practice and interest in relation to online/offline craft? How are traditional skills appropriated by contemporary communities of practice/interest? Is there a tension between craft's emphasis on local networks and global connectivity? What are the relationships between 'virtual' communities and material products? These questions unfold in the nexus between online and offline communities and are concerned with how space, time, and materiality relate to the processes and practices of community building. The review will adopt a multidisciplinary approach to achieve three objectives: 1) a literature review to situate online and offline communities within humanities and social sciences literature. This will review how online technologies have been engaged by different craft communities over time, their relationship with economies of craft, their use to disseminate knowledge, and their role in producing new forms of making. 2) A workshop to understand emergent craft communities and practices of connecting. The study will actively engage with stakeholders and makers within the craft community. This will establish a dialogue with and between craft makers in order to think through the role of online/offline tools in craft communities. It will uncover how these engagements relate to the creative economy, and the role of intermediaries in virtual spaces that influence that engagement. 3) Theorising to connect the materialities of online and offline practices of making: the review will build on these findings to explore questions of materiality and temporality that emerge from making objects in between 'virtual' and 'real' communities. The review itself is timely: craft practices bring together people to share knowledge, encourage creative practice in everyday settings, and contribute to the creative economy. However, a critical engagement with how groups and individuals use online/offline practices to form communities, identities, and to make and to share these practices is missing. Redressing this absence is critical to answering questions about contemporary community building. Furthermore, innovative practices enabled by online tools are rapidly being adopted by craft organizations. However, their experience and successful uptake has met with mixed success. Further understanding of the benefits and limits of online interactions is needed to ensure that best practice can be developed. Furthermore, the rise of new political movements, such as 'craftivism', which use online tools to gather together activists that use knitting and embroidery to make political statements, suggest there is more to be learned about community sustainability, resilience and engagement, from the example of craft.

Over the past two decades sustainability has developed from a peripheral concern to a pressing mainstream issue, affecting domestic and industrial domains. The creative industry's diverse outputs, ranging from physical artworks and hard luxury goods to publications and films, all entail multiple entanglements with material sustainability. The project team will scope current and immanent sustainable practice around the sourcing, use, disposal, recycling and reuse of materials, to help understand the creative sector's ongoing responses. Recognising that different creative disciplines have different prerogatives and operate under specific pressures, the research will take a discipline-led approach, whilst also acknowledging where cross-discipline activity is evident. The project will cover: Architectural Design (including architectural model making); Applied Arts (Ceramics; Furniture making; Glass; Goldsmithing and silversmithing; Instrument Making; Jewellery); Design (Industrial design; Packaging design; Product design; Design for medical applications), Fashion (menswear, womenswear; accessories, including leather working), Filmmaking; Fine Arts (Installation; Painting; Printmaking; Sculpture), Museums, Galleries and Heritage (Collection conservation and restoration; Curating contemporary art; Museum display and storage; Heritage building maintenance); Photography, Textiles, Theatre and performing arts (including Scenography, Costume, and Lighting). The result will be a comprehensive record of the current positions on materials sustainability and related issues held by the spectrum of creative industries active across the UK. This will be supplemented by a series of case studies of individual initiatives from other countries, predominantly in the developing world, where improving sustainability is an evident element of the activities under examination. In both cases, reference will be made to how the identified activities relate to the United Nations' Sustainability Development Goals. The project activities will include a comprehensive literature review, remote surveys and informal scoping interviews with practitioners and associated professionals working in one of more creative disciplines, as well as (conditions allowing) engaging with members of the creative industries through small, discipline-focused workshops and project roadshow events held at the project team members' institutions in Brighton, Edinburgh, London and Plymouth. These events will be opportunities to engage in dialogue, present the interim findings to the attendees and to gather further information. Should travel and social distancing restrictions make some elements of this approach unviable, the team will focus on a more digitally orientated data collection, review and result broadcasting strategy. The case studies will draw on the team members' previous overseas research experience and professional networks, supplemented (where possible) by field visits to enable them to understand how sustainability ideals are informing individuals' practice and perceptions in the context of the case study initiative. The key result will be a composite report, authored by all the research team. The report will act as a benchmark of state-of-the-art practice and perceptions around material sustainability in the creative industries, identifying existing trends and showcasing cutting-edge developments, as well as flagging sector-wide and discipline specific barriers that will have to be negotiated or addressed to achieve widespread sustainably orientated practice. The report will also provide insights into the creative industries from an international perspective and contribute to an understanding of how the Global Challenges Research Fund and Newton Fund might be utilised to instigate or support sustainability initiatives relating to the creative industries across the developing world.

Climate change poses a major threat to cultural and industrial heritage conservation in Damietta. Not only does sea- level rise endanger significant heritage sites, but also puts at risk the conservation and continuance of cultural values and practices that form irreplaceable layers of history in this community, embodied in the local craft and value chain, as well as the industry's social capital and spatio-temporal networks. Critically, the interrelated tangible and intangible cultural heritage directly affect the city's resilience and economic growth. This project aims to examine, quantitatively map and promote the cultural and economic resilience of Damietta, which is under threat from climate change and contemporary political decision-making that is insensitive to its socio-cultural heritage. By documenting and highlighting indigenouss knowlege and the tangible cultural heritage of this craft industry and its social networks, a strong case can be made to protect these practices and save the economic livelihood of the city's inhabitants. The methodology adopts a mixed methods approach, comprising interviews, focus groups and stakeholder workshops, which verify a geospatial GIS network map based on field survey. The research utilises Network Theory, Social Capital Theory and Competitive Advantage Theory as a basis for the evidence to quantity Social Capital and visualise its resilience in relation to space. The project outputs include visual GIS mapping of Social Capital networks as cultural heritage, online interactive platform as a shared arena for furniture industry community awareness towards climate change mitigation, recommendations for inclusive decision-making for municipalities and local authorities, as well as building the case for Damietta's furniture industry network for recognition in UNESCO's ICH programme. This project tackles several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that relate to cultural heritage, economic growth/reform and sustainability in terms of climate action: decent work and economic growth; industry and innovation; sustainable cities and communities; and climate action (SDG 8, 9, 11, and 13). This offers an opportunity for data-driven sustainable development in Egypt, which is included in the ODA list on reporting for 2020 aid to mitigate against climate change.