A central aim of the project has been to develop an international network of scholars with interests relating to the project's themes, and to promote effective communication between academics and potential users.

Project Workshops

Key to this been the organisation of a series of workshops held at Durham University. Reports and materials from each of the workshops are available via links below.

>Workshop 1, Durham University, 5-6th July 2005
>Workshop 2, Durham University, 11th January 2006
>Workshop 3, Durham University, 12-13th January 2006
>Workshop 4, Durham University, 6-7th July 2006

Papers and Presentations from the project

The team have also actively pursued these aims through international presentations at universities, academic conferences and professional workshops. A full list of presentations is available here

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Workshop 1, Durham University, 5-6th July 2005.

Designing and consuming: exploring ideas of objects, practices and processes

A successful workshop took place on the 5th and 6th of July. Over 20 scholars from various social science disciplines and from design research, drawn from across the UK and beyond, gathered at Grey College, Durham University. Report, presentations and pictures from here.

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Workshop 2, Durham University, 11 January 2006

This workshop considered the relevance of objects, practices and related processes for theories of consumption. For all the energy invested in developing theories of consumption relatively little attention has been paid to the design and use of the material artefacts involved. This one-day workshop provides an opportunity to review the agency and value of products in everyday life, and to do so from different points of view. During the course of the day we explored concepts developed within science and technology studies, material culture, design theory and theories of practice and assess their relevance for analysing and conceptualising the dynamics of ordinary consumption. By focusing on things in use, rather than things at the point of acquisition we sought to identify points of connection between theories of agency, practice and consumption. In thinking about design and product evolution we want to review interdependent processes of consumption, appropriation and production.

For more on how the event went, please see the workshop report

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Workshop 3, Durham University, 12-13 January 2006

Consumption and Design: ideas at the interface

This two-day workshop brought together 26 design scholars and social scientists together to share and compare perspectives on design, innovation and consumption, and to explore the relation between products and practices. The workshop was organised around five themes located at the interface between social science and design:

Humans, non humans and man-machine systems;
Domestication and related concepts, including appropriation and assembly;
Constructing Value;
Product evolution;
The political economy of design.

For more on how the event went, please see the workshop report

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Workshop 4, Durham University, 6-7th July 2006

Practices, materiality and product design

The fourth and final workshop of the project took place in July at Hatfield College, in the historic centre of Durham. It gathered 28 scholars and professional product innovators and designers, from as far afield as the USA and Australia.

The event was distinctively light on formal presentations. The emphasis was instead on provoking critical discussion and creative thinking through participative exercises, substantially focused around the Manifesto of Practice Oriented product Design

Find out more

Papers and presentations from the Designing and Consuming project