Reconfiguring making and design practices: reviewing the meaning of knowledge and skills in socio-cultural contexts

The paper examines the shift in the perspective of the education of designers and makers: where design and making practice is seen as a way to investigate and to gain further insight into socio-cultural conditions of the moment, rather than simply as a means to provide solutions to a given problem. It discusses original research conducted on 'thingness' - materiality of things - and working knowledge, which has been undertaken with an aim to enable students to gain a broader perspective on the roles and possibilities of their specialised design and craft disciplines.