PEOPLE, SOCIETY, SELF

The Introduction & the Preface texts by Becky & Rosie, to the book, ‘Design Materials & Making for Social Change’ can be accessed via Academia.edu.

This book spans the two interconnected worlds of the material & the social, at different scales & in different contexts, & explores the value of the knowledge, skills & methods that emerge when design researchers work directly with materials & hold making central to their practice. Libraries & organisations can order the book from Routledge.

Complexity, Compassion & Courage: Towards a holistic systems model for female-led design for change. Becky gave a keynote talk at the closing event for the SheMakes project, where she reflected on the project work & built upon the Design Council’s Systemic Design Model with new themes.

Becky initiated & led a short KE project which brought together multiple experts to explore how design educators might work with charity shops & their volunteer workers, to empower them for future action. Often on the receiving end of huge amounts of textile & clothing waste, these high street venues play a key role in the flow of goods through a circular economy. Design can be used to support people, place & product (& many other ‘P’s’ as it transpires!)

Becky chats to Grant Gibson about her life & career working with polyester, across a thirty year period. So many ‘happy accidents’ led her this moment in time; from choosing to study textile design on a whim in 1989, to remaking old polyester shirts in 1999 because she was too broke to pay for pattern cutters & machinists. It all worked out in the end, but what a journey!

An interview & link to a paper, ‘From Sustainable, to Circular, to Social Design Research’, in which Becky describes & analyses her longitudinal practice research project, mapping it into a sustainable & circular design landscape. She explores the new materials, social models & user mindsets needed in order to shift from a linear to a circular – & more socially equitable – society.

Becky, Dr Rosie Hornbuckle & Dr Marion Real ran a workshop at DRS Bilbao 2022, where they used a local wool (Latxa) as a focal point to engage a variety of designers to think through how inclusive circular change might happen at a systemic level. For circularity to truly work, we need every sector of society to be involved & the changes need to benefit all.

‘Working Together to Complete the Circle’. Article for the Huffington Post which calls for more collaboration between actors in the circular and sustainable fashion sector.

Enrolling Stakeholders for Circular Fashion. Paper which asks ‘How can people be involved within their geographic location in the new ideas and activities in emerging the circular fashion industry?’

Short essay by Becky, Dr Bridget Harvey & Professor Lucy Norris, for phase 2 of the UAL Cultures of Resilience project, with Ezio Manzini. The authors draw on Mauss’s The Gift (1990), in which Mary Douglas says the recipient of charity does not ever like the giver, & that “foundations should not confuse their donations with gifts.”

‘My INNER/OUTER Journey - Elin Lindquist’s Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2030’. Book chapter by Becky & Clara Vuletich, n which they share a fictitious speech given by a fashion designer receiving the Nobel prize for their work in sustainability. Based on research insights from the Mistra Future Fashion programme.

Transcription from a keynote talk, at an FTC conference in Huddersfield, in which Becky reflects on the self & role of mindfulness, introspection & reflection, in large collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects,