Introduction

Within sustainability discourse, the notion that ‘we don’t need to make more stuff’ has, whether intentionally or not, embedded a sense of shame and guilt amongst some designers and researchers for whom materials and making is their passion, their literacy, their expertise and their research currency. It has forced design researchers, makers and materials experimenters to reflect and rethink the value of their practice. This introductory editorial explores how, through the social entanglements of addressing material impacts, the contributors to Design Materials and Making for Social Change also encounter and interact with homelessness, diaspora, migration, the erosion of craft skills and communities, dignity in work and family life, the impacts of colonialism, climate crisis, education, mental health and the shifting complexities in collaborating with and across diverse disciplines and stakeholders. The authors reflect on how the increasing complexity of environmental and social challenges has fostered a new era of materials and making in design research, as part of a collaborative, relational and dialogic practice, which can bring about diverse forms of environmental and social change.