Modern manufacturing for global markets tends to homogenize material culture through its centralized production and divisive production process. In contrast, craft practices usually have a strong local identity through their application of holistic making practices, context-based knowledge, culturally specific responses and community-centred production. This form of locally-based, customizable and responsive production is discussed here in terms of its relationship to sustainability and as a promising direction for future manufacturing. Despite the potentially strong relationship between craft and sustainability, there is still only limited research exploring this relationship and how craft can more effectively contribute to contemporary industry and life in general. This paper begins by developing an understanding of the relationship between craft and sustainability. From this, we identify: 1) barriers to craft’s development for sustainability, and 2) potential directions to which design can contribute. We then provide an analysis of the current state of crafts in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and identify the challenges and potential for design interventions in this region.

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.

The paper presents ongoing research on craft and design for sustainability in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China. Based on previous research into the relationship between craft and design for sustainability, and literature on value, a typology of five values pertaining to craft is defined. This research investigates values and craft practices in the YRD through identifying the direction of craftwork development in the region and evaluating them against the defined five values. It is found that some crafts in the YRD are commercialized and strongly influenced by cosmopolitanism and consumerism, while some crafts with high intrinsic values are still in decline and need specific interventions. However, these interventions need more context-based consideration and evaluation. What might be regarded as “excessive” intervention in commercial promotion and mass-production could potentially homogenize local crafts, thereby undermining their distinctiveness and their intrinsic values. The aim of this paper is to (a) identify the direction of different craftworks categories in the YRD; and (b) evaluate them with the defined five values in order to inform future design intervention.

Craft has long been regarded as being out of step with contemporary production and society. However, there is renewed interest in craft practices worldwide. In China, craftsmanship has recently been identified as a vital ingredient for the nation’s manufacturing development. Although craft has an inherent relationship with sustainability, this relationship has yet to be explored systemically. Aiming to understand craft as a field of making and as an agent for triggering transformative change, this study explores the relationships between craft, sustainability, and design. The main study site is the Yangtze River Delta in China, and this research aims to (1) determine the relationship between craft and sustainability and its theoretic underpinnings; and (2) explore the potential for design to contribute to craft in order to nurture sustainable transformation.