Local adequacy as a design strategy in place-based making

Abstract

This article examines continuing appropriation of products and materials through the term 'local adequacy' and provides an alternative perspective on grassroots strategies of exercising control over technology by (re)connecting with the place of its making and using. To observe and document these strategies, we examine areas with challenging natural and infrastructural conditions, where local inhabitants collectively undertake creative action for building a comfortable living environment. Three cases in remote areas of Russia show that local adequacy is formed though identities reflected in both practical and symbolic value of products, competences that allow products to be used, maintained, and upgraded; and materials through which makers are included in a broader economic and technological context.