This commentary responds to Chantel Carr's article ‘Repair and care’ through a focus on the vexed question of carbon-intensive worker retraining in the context of urgent and necessary decarbonisation and industry change in Australia. There are many parallels between my research and Carr's, particularly in relation to an understanding of the potential of existing technical skillsets in industrial working populations. Like Carr, I reflect upon my empirical research – over the past decade – with current and former industrial tradespeople. This commentary reflects on what ‘retraining’ has actually meant, in practice, for industrial workers in deindustrialising Australia. I then identify a key tension that exists in relation to the question of retraining carbon workers. Climate change mitigation calls for the dramatic and wide-ranging transformation of industries, infrastructure, jobs, and skillsets. But the fact remains, humans are complex, with diverse needs, and they are now more likely to articulate these needs on an individual level, not collectively. With this in mind – and in a background in which much academic work draws attention to complexities and institutional shortcomings – how do we balance individualised requirements with the need for dramatic, macro-level transformation?
The Action Plan for Australian Bats is a Commonwealth initiative (Duncan et al. 1999a) which sets out the species considered to be in need of conservation and recommends Commonwealth funding to be applied. The argument of the present paper is that the Action Plan does not provide an adequate basis for bat research in Australia because it concentrates almost exclusively on a small number of threatened species and omits general bat research. This argument is supported by recent surveys of the opinions of bat researchers. The threatened species determinations of the various States also suffer from the same deficiency, i.e., threatened species have become the focus of attention at the expense of the conservation of all bat species. This increasing emphasis on threatened species, particularly those now on the national list, diminishes the possibility of carrying out basic bat research or research on species threatened at State level (at least in New South Wales) but not listed on a federal level under current national criteria. We contend that a better approach would be to focus on the threatening processes that affect all bat species (including non-threatened species) across the country in order to simultaneously determine strategies for protecting those that are threatened, as well as instituting measures that will prevent others from declining.
A 'foreign order' is an Australian industrial colloquialism referring to a practice whereby workers produce objects at work-using factory materials and work timewithout authorization. This is an under-explored but global phenomenon with many names, including 'homers', 'side productions', 'government jobs' and la perruque. This article examines the unofficial creative activities of Australian print-workers through a case study of a Sydney printing factory in the 1980s, when the printing industry was rapidly computerizing and manual skills were increasingly seen as redundant. Using oral and archival sources, the article explores how the making of foreign orders became more overt and politicized, as workers sensed their insecurity. The practice of making 'on the side' gave print-workers a degree of agency and the ability to narrativize their own plight.Design history tends to examine 'officially' produced items, potentially leaving out whole swathes of design practice taking place on the factory floor. This study operates within what has been defined as the 'expanded field' of Australian design history, including considerations of the material culture of labour and manufacturing history within the design historian's reach. It also engages with recent calls for an increased awareness of amateur practices and 'unsanctioned knowledge' in design history.
3D printing is not only a diverse set of developing technologies, it is also a social phenomenon operating within the political imaginary. The past half-decade has seen a surge of 'futuring' activity and widespread public attention devoted to 3D printing, which is typically represented as a harbinger of economic revival and political transformation. This article explores how 3D-printed futures are imagined across a broad political spectrum, by undertaking a multidisciplinary analysis of academic and popular literature. Three influential political imaginaries of 3D printing are identified: the maker-as-entrepreneur, the economic revival of the nation state, and commons-based utopias. In spite of stark contrasts in political alignment, these imagined futures share one important thing: an increasing awareness of design, making and production. This insertion of design into mainstream discourse is an important development for design history and theory, as it potentially enables an increasing public comprehension of the profound significance of design in the world, in both historical and contemporary terms.
W e are surrounded by broken things and environments: 1 designed objects, spaces and systems in need of repair. Repair is a commonsense but partial answer to overconsumption and landfill crisis. It is conservative yet progressive. But as a concept and a material reality, repair can also overwhelm. With increasing technological complexity, and decreasing time, resources, and skill, the ethical and logistical questions around repair abound: What shall we care for, why, and how? 2 Where to begin? In this context, we begin with design: linking the value of repair to design is central to developing an ethics of care in the environmental humanities. In doing so, we acknowledge that design, in its current form, is deeply complicit in environmental destruction. Dominant definitions of design since European modernism have tended to emphasize the creative capacity of humans to make something new by manipulating material resources, organizing information, or delineating space. To be fair, critical design history has worked hard to add complexity to this understanding of design, extending analysis far beyond the new product to incorporate a plethora of practices and account for production, consumption, use, and social meaning. 3 Mainstream social understandings of design, however, still tend to gravitate toward the fresh, crisp assurance afforded by the latest new thing. The most celebrated professional designers tend to be those who envision new products. Other material practices, such as repair (as well as disassembly and maintenance) are not generally considered design, even though such practices shape the form, operation, appearance, and perceptions of the material world we occupy (fig. 1). 4 The recent popularity of "design thinking" brought design and business together, further entrenching design's status as providing a soothing surface sheen.
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