Maker-centric: building place-based, co-making communities

在麻省理工学院的一篇白色论文中，建筑师和城市规划师Susan西尔伯贝格（2012）认为，在地方制作中"制作"的价值是推动社区参与未来公共空间设计的一种手段。她宣称，一个“以制造为中心的”世界“的势头正在增长，并强调了当一个企业或活动在社区环境中进行一段时间后，“深度参与”和“深度包容的方法”。以制造商为中心采取这种基于位置的方法，让社区参与投机性的共同设计。它认为，"就地制造"，包括所有的历史，地理，文化，政治和经济特征，并通过创造性的"地方制造"批判性地重新塑造地方，对于连接社区和发展，参与，资产和代理至关重要（哈克尼& Figueiredo 2017）。因此，它建立在一系列互联社区项目和活动的基础上，最近的一次是团队对2016年7月在萨默塞特大厦举行的乌托邦节的贡献。这是由社区合作伙伴Craftspace，伯明翰与伍尔弗汉普顿大学合作，并试行了一项提案，共同创造，创意制作如何可能提供一个平台，社区共同投机作为一种形式的"活遗产"（https：//cocreatingcare.wordpress.com/maker-centric-2016/）。该项目是及时考虑到区域不满后Brexit。专注于中部地区的遗产，并提供机会，从当代的角度与该地区的工业创新和激进思想的悠久历史相联系（见中部制造和北部BBCR 4）。将该项目定位于当代倡议中，例如伍尔弗汉普顿大学参与的"中部引擎"，旨在"利用"中部地区"的自然优势和资产"（Sajid Javid 2016），以及Craftspace的"中部制造"，目前已进入第八年（http：//craftspace.co.uk/），加强了货币和相关性。中部地区是一个高度多样化的多元文化地区，基于地点的制作包括在家中的私人空间制作，就像在城镇或城市的公共空间制作一样。因此，我们与少数民族和受排斥的群体合作，重新想象他们的地方，包括妇女，虽然经常孤立，但在家庭制作（缝纫，刺绣，纺织品）方面有共同的兴趣和技能;如果得到支持，可以通过创造性实践和知识交流增加代理和机会的资产（哈克尼2013）。迄今为止，伙伴关系一直是我们所有社区参与研究的核心。它对于将研究嵌入社区，获得信任，最大限度地减少风险和建立遗产至关重要。该项目将这种学习提升到一个新的水平，不仅与当前的合作伙伴Craftspace合作作为社区共同研究者，而且还将学习扩展到该组织在该地区的志同道合的合作伙伴网络：例如，Legacy West Midlands www.example.com和Creative Black Country http：//www.creativeblackcountry.co.uk/。后者涉及通过与斯洛文尼亚的一个协会"Terra Vera"共同制作进行知识交流，该协会通过实践中的可持续发展支持社区复原力，包括一个支持妇女手工业者成为当地企业家的网络方案。该组织的职责是与低收入社区合作，鼓励代际对话，为弱势社会群体提供新的机会，并促进材料和衣服的创造性再利用，这与我们的研究与场所制作、“进行交流”和创客空间相对应，以促进可持续发展思维、建立资产和机构（哈克尼2017）。以制造者为中心通过共同制造社区来建立能力和影响力，这些社区同时在当地嵌入与地方的关键参与，并通过共同承诺进行国际联系。

In an MIT White Paper the architect and urban planner Susan Silberberg (2012) argued for the value of 'making' in place-making as a means to drive community engagement in the future design of public space. Momentum is growing for a 'making-centric' world', she declared, emphasising the 'deep engagement' and 'deeply inclusive approach' that comes when an enterprise or activity is undertaken in community settings over a period of time. Maker-centric takes this material placed-based approach to engaging communities in speculative co-design. It argues that 'making in place', with all the historical, geographical, cultural, political and economic specificities which that entails, and critically re-imaging place through creative 'place-making', is vital to connecting communities and developing, engagement, assets and agency (Hackney & Figueiredo 2017). As such it builds on findings from a raft of Connected Communities projects and events, most recently the team's contribution to the Utopias Festival at Somerset House July 2016. This was led by Community Partner Craftspace, Birmingham in collaboration with Wolverhampton University, and piloted a proposal for how co-created, creative making might provide a platform for community co-speculation as a form of 'living heritage' (https://cocreatingcare.wordpress.com/maker-centric-2016/). The project is timely given regional dissatisfactions post-Brexit. Focusing on Midlands' heritage builds on, and provides opportunities to connect with the region's long history of industrial innovation and radical thinking from a contemporary perspective (see Made in the Middle and The Matter of the North BBCR4). Locating the project within such contemporary initiatives as the 'Midlands Engine' of which Wolverhampton University is a part and that aims to 'capitalise on the 'Midlands' natural strengths and assets' (Sajid Javid 2016), and Craftspace's 'Made in the Middle' that is currently is in its eight year (http://craftspace.co.uk/), strengthens currency and relevance. The Midlands is a highly diverse multi-cultural region and place-based making includes making in the private spaces of the home just as much as the public spaces of the town or city. As such we work with minority ethnic and excluded groups to reimagine their locality, including women who, although often isolated have shared interests and skills in domestic making (sewing, embroidery, textiles); assets that if supported can increase agency and opportunity through creative practice and knowledge exchange (Hackney 2013). Partnership working has been at the heart of all our community engagement research to date. It is essential in embedding the research in communities, gaining trust, minimalizing risk and building legacy. This project takes that learning to a new level, not only working with current partner Craftspace as a Community Co-Investigator but also by extending the learning to the organisation's like-minded partner network within the region: Legacy West Midlands http://legacy-wm.org/ and Creative Black Country http://www.creativeblackcountry.co.uk/, for instance, and beyond. The latter involves knowledge exchange through co-making with Terra Vera, an association in Slovenia that supports community resilience through sustainable development in praxis, including a programme of networks supporting women handcrafters as local entrepreneurs. The organisation's remit to work with low-income communities, encourage intergenerational dialogue, provide new opportunities for vulnerable social groups, and promote creative re-use of material and clothes, parallels our research with place-making, 'making exchanges' and maker spaces to promote sustainable thinking, build assets and agency (Hackney 2017). Maker-centric builds capacity and impact through co-making communities that are simultaneously locally embedded in a critical engagement with place, and internationally connected through a shared commitment to making.