Divide, Switch, Blend: exploring two hats for industry entrepreneurship and academic practice-based textile design research

This paper explores different approaches taken when ‘wearing two hats’; that of academic researcher and the industry entrepreneur. It considers the barriers and opportunities in combining these two roles in order to acquire new knowledge. To understand how future researchers could best do this and why this might be desirable, the paper presents Author1’s insights from field research experience; wearing both hats within a textile industry context. A literature review, reflective practice and an annotated portfolio method enabled the authors to identify three approaches – Divide, Switch and Blend. These form a model for researching with any two hats on: Divide entails wearing both hats separately on different occasions; Switch is wearing both hats but interchanging between the two on a single occasion; Blend is wearing both hats simultaneously. The authors conclude that fluidity between approaches and an understanding of the dominant hat is vital.