Making Futures Journal

The history of Making Futures Journal

Making Futures is a research platform exploring contemporary craft and maker movements as ‘change agents’ in 21st century society. Taking place every two years, Making Futures is a conference produced by Plymouth College of Art and curated by Malcolm Ferris.

Making Futures investigates contemporary craft and maker movements as ‘change agents’ within 21st century society, particularly in relation to global sustainability agendas, social entrepreneurialism and community regeneration. Convinced of the transformative potential of small-scale making and its capacity to contribute to new progressive futures, Making Futures seeks to situate these material cultures at the centre of the critical issue facing global consumer society: how we move beyond the reductive instrumentalism of ‘homo economicus’ and mass consumption, towards a political economy capable of valuing our needs for social well being and resilient communities, that incorporates concerns for non-human natures…

Each edition of the Making Futures Journal brings together submissions from an international cast of scholars, artists, makers and curators worldwide, representing a spectrum of responses to the corresponding Making Futures biennial conference and organised through the thematic fields, panels, and workshops of that event.

Rights & Permissions

Copyright of the papers belongs to the Making Futures conference organiser, Plymouth College of Art. Authors retain proprietary rights and veto over third party publication. Authors wishing to publish elsewhere must first seek permission from Plymouth College of Art and will be required to credit them as the original publishers of the paper.

To ensure the widest possible dissemination of Making Futures, the Journal is published as open-access academic resource. Not-for-profit users are able to download the full articles for reading. Not-for-profit users wishing to quote or reuse any part or section of an article in print or electronic media must ensure the used portion is accompanied by a credit acknowledging the original author and Plymouth College of Art as the original publishers of the paper.

Educators or researchers interested in using or citing Journal papers should contact the Making Futures Co-editors, Judith Noble and Stephanie Owens at Plymouth College of Art.

Contacts & Getting in touch

All general enquiries regarding the Making Futures should be directed to the biennial conference organisers at: conference@pca.ac.uk.

Other contacts:

Journal Co-editor: Judith Noble, Head of Academic Research, Plymouth College of Art
Journal Co-editor: Stephanie Owens, Head of School, School of Arts + Media, Plymouth College of Art
Biennial Curator, Malcolm Ferris, Curator, Making Futures Conference