Title: Towards patterns of responsible consumption and production: an exploration of do-it-yourself practitioners through motivations, conceptions, and fabrication processes

Authors: Laurence Carney; Claudia Déméné

Addresses: Faculty of Environmental Design, Architecture, Art and Design, School of Design, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, G1K 3G8, Canada ' Faculty of Environmental Design, Architecture, Art and Design, School of Design, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, G1K 3G8, Canada

Abstract: Defined as a way for practitioners to conceive and fabricate products by and for themselves, do-it-yourself (DIY) has recently garnered interest as a practice that may encourage patterns of responsible consumption and production (RCP). However, conceptualising the DIY practice as one that reduces resources, energy and waste is still debated among the scientific community as it may require the use of new materials and technologies with higher energy consumption. In this context, this study has the following objectives: 1) to explore practitioners' environmental, social and ethical motivations to DIY; and 2) to document their DIY process. To this purpose, 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted with practitioners from Quebec, Canada. Based on the findings, three personas were developed to categorise practitioners and examine their profile types. Finally, this paper proposes a definition of responsible DIY to guide practitioners towards patterns of RCP in their practise of DIY.

Keywords: DIY; do-it-yourself; practitioners; motivations; conception and fabrication process; RCP; responsible consumption and production; responsible do-it-yourself; responsible DIY.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2022.130475

Journal of Design Research, 2022 Vol.20 No.3, pp.179 - 208

Accepted: 19 Dec 2021
Published online: 21 Apr 2023 *

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