China’s Creative Communities: Making Value and the Value(s) of Making

China’s Creative Communities: Making Value and the Value(s) of Making was a four-part cross-disciplinary research and scoping project to bring together practitioners and academics in the UK and China to network, research, workshop and publically disseminate ideas and innovations around the multi-faceted value of making in China. Funded by the AHRC/Newton Fund, it aimed to strengthen China’s multiple maker communities in partnership with the UK, as part of the UK’s broader support for China’s creative industries and knowledge economy.

The project was led by Principal Investigator Dr Catharine Rossi, Senior Lecturer in Design History, Kingston University together with Co-Investigators Dr Justin Marshall, Associate Professor of Craft, Falmouth University and Professor Guy Julier, University of Brighton Professor of Design Culture at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This report provides an overview of the project’s context, participants, and methodology, the research conducted and key findings. The project focuses on the findings and discussion of stages 2 to 4 of the project, which followed on from an initial planning and research at stage 1. In addition to this report, the China’s Creative Communities blog [https://chinascreativecommunities.wordpress.com] contains substantial information and participants’ reflections on the project, all of which is publically accessible.