Moving Textile Artisans' Communities towards a Sustainable Future – A Theoretical Framework

The current economic crisis is building momentum for designers to challenge the linear take-make-waste model and explore sustainable strategies, services and systems. With this in mind, this research explores how service design can encourage textile artisans’ communities towards a sustainable future, providing social engagement, rescuing cultural heritage, boosting economic development and enhancing environmental stewardship. Service design is here proposed as an approach to empower such communities, co-design collaborative services and sustain innovations within an enabling ecosystem. The paper focuses on the first study of this research where a theoretical framework to help textile artisans’ communities transitioning to a sustainable future was co-developed with academic experts in the field. A Nominal Group Technique and semi-structure interviews were used to collect data; results and findings are presented as barriers, enablers and a manifesto to encourage a sustainable future. To conclude, next steps and challenges posed by the envisioned future are discussed.