Project Details: Summary
This study has undertaken 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 study has explored the development of new modes of communication within online/offline communities linked to craft, and the role of creativity in shaping those cultures. This project has also reviewed the new cultural, social and economic practices in craft worlds, in relation to online/offline practices of community building. It has analysed how the adoption of online tools have shaped the connections, practices and processes that constitute craft communities. These tools include the Internet, social media, Web 2.0 applications and the use of digital technologies in the production of craft objects themselves.
This scoping study understands online/offline craft communities as dynamic processes, rather than static entities. It has explored 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 study 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.
This scoping study understands online/offline craft communities as dynamic processes, rather than static entities. It has explored 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 study 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.
Project Details: Final Report
Here you can download a copy of the project report delivered to the AHRC on completion of the scoping study, November 2012.
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