Report for researchers on the methodology of mapping craft values and analyzing craft controversies

This report presents an original craft mapping methodology that combines ethnographic methods, historical approaches and designmapping methods to examine the values of craft in an ecosystem. The report also presents the research results from the craft mapping methodology of HEPHAESTUS which has been used in each of the four European craft ecosystems in focus and across them. This methodology has allowed the project: to observe their socio-economic and cultural infrastructures; to capture their historical and contemporary identities; to untangle the current urgencies of the members of the ecosystems and their degree of resistance and acceptance towards cutting-edge technologies and sustainability and to map their values. By unpacking sustainability and digitalisation as key controversies, the report highlights how heritage crafts both face risks and generate new pathways for renewal.