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Value Direction: Moving Crafts toward Sustainability in the Yangstze River Delta, China

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Article number1252
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>19/04/2018
<mark>Journal</mark>Sustainability
Issue number4
Volume10
Number of pages20
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

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.