Open Access

Gwendolyn Kulick

• Located at the intersection of grassroots empowerment, development aid and design, this research project investigates the experiences of different stakeholders who engage in establishing ethical approaches in craft projects in Pakistan. Ranging from small private initiatives to internationally funded aid programs, central to them is the objective to support social justice, poverty alleviation, and cultural heritage preservation. Empirical data gathered through action research, case studies, and focus groups was analysed through the systems lens and used to visualise current stakeholders and their relationships in the "craft for empowerment system." This bird's eye perspective enables to recognise how dominating structures, processes, andLocated at the intersection of grassroots empowerment, development aid and design, this research project investigates the experiences of different stakeholders who engage in establishing ethical approaches in craft projects in Pakistan. Ranging from small private initiatives to internationally funded aid programs, central to them is the objective to support social justice, poverty alleviation, and cultural heritage preservation. Empirical data gathered through action research, case studies, and focus groups was analysed through the systems lens and used to visualise current stakeholders and their relationships in the "craft for empowerment system." This bird's eye perspective enables to recognise how dominating structures, processes, and mindsets of global aid politics and locally established routines impact stakeholders in craft projects on the ground, especially marginalised craft producers, local project managers, and designers. Despite genuinely positive intentions among the majority of stakeholders, cultural, geographical, and socio-economic distances, as well as different educational backgrounds between them, often result in approaches that do not do justice to local conditions and possibilities This challenge is emphasised by dominating top-down management processes when setting goals and applying implementation strategies, that have consolidated over time. As a result of this research project, the design framework "designing for coalescence" is introduced. It aims to encourage stakeholders to critically question established roles and power relationships in grassroots empowerment processes, learn mutually from each other, and develop and try new approaches together as equal partners. The framework is based on the realisation that the agency of marginalised people can only emerge when other stakeholders critically reflect and actively change their own position in the "craft for empowerment system."…