Re-Crafting Capitalism, Regenerating Societies: How do designer-makers amplify, build and regenerate social capital?

Abstract

The hegemony of capitalism is that the default ‘capital’ in question is specifically economic, financial or fiscal – cash, profits, assets, stocks, Gross Domestic Progress (GDP), Returns on Investment (ROIs) and so on. Yet the diverse agendas within the broad church of ‘sustainability’ recognise that economic capital has essential relations with numerous forms of capital: the Five Capitals Framework– natural, human, social, manufactured and financial (Porritt, 2007); is inter-connected with nine other forms of capital (Fuad-Luke, 2009); and needs to recognise quixotic forms of capital such as spiritual capital which addresses the dimension of our shared meanings and values and ultimate purposes (Zohar, 2004). Researchers and practitioners are challenging how design and craft, and their constituent communities, impact on various capitals (see for example, Cipolla & Peruccio, 2008; Ferris, 2009). While means to reduce our impacts on natural capital are clearly evidenced through eco-design, the impact designing and making has on human and social capital has received less attention, although a recent Crafts Council report did examine the role of craft within participatory arts practice and its impacts on children, community groups, and health and disability through personal learning and gains through social interaction (Schwarz & Yair, 2010).

Commentators from different perspectives note that the building of social capital requires the development of trust, mutual support, norms and the ability to work together (Field, 2010). Such attributes inform the transference of tacit and explicit knowledge and skills, both strong elements of craft which Sennett sees as being accumulated and passed on through social interaction, and hence contributing to social capital (Sennett, 2008).

There is an urgency to address how designing and making can add positive human and social capital as resilient social communities are seen as an essential step in developing more sustainably conscious and able societies to deal with the post-crash global economic adjustments (Jackson, 2009) and post Peak-Oil, or post Carbon economies (Hopkins, 2008).

This paper makes a preliminary investigation of how designing and making does and could positively impact on human andsocial capital, with reference to recent projects in the UK, of which the author has first-hand experience (e.g. Give Fleece a Chance – raising the profile of local sustainable wool in Devon; Imperfect Cinema – a grassroots film making initiative and Hands-on Brixham – community engagement in making by a community of makers) and/or sees as challenging the way we engage in these activities (Material Actions, FabLabs, Futureeverything) and hence the boundaries of what we perceive as ‘making’. Part of the enquiry here is to ask whether framing from a socio-economic perspective, using established means of measuring Social Return On Investment (SROI) (see for example, Leighton & Wood, 2010) offers a way forward for designer-makers to envision and measure how they amplify, build and regenerate human and social capital. Or, is there a need to develop parameters sensitive to the qualitative nature of designing and making that allows the language of re-crafting capitalism to evolve?