Digital Reality Lab

 
[Digital Infrastructures for sustaining crafting communities: a global south perspective]

Digital Infrastructures for sustaining crafting communities: a global south perspective

Karina Rodriguez Echavarria1,  Claire Wintle1,  Tim Weyrich2

1 University of Brighton
2 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Abstract

This paper presents research on the design and development of a digital approach and infrastructure for the digitisation of knowledge and information by textile-crafting communities. Specifically, the research is conducted in collaboration with the Jawaja artisan community in Rajasthan, India, to explore how skills, tacit knowledge, materiality, and digital approaches come together to underpin innovation within the creative industries. Currently, there are a variety of approaches for communities to share their data, including information about themselves and their environments, through data infrastructure. These include citizen platforms such as Zooniverse and Data Collective, structured databases, such as Wikidata, and other initiatives led by open-data organisations. In addition, the digitisation of cultural heritage from indigenous communities has increasingly been seen by cultural institutions as a politically and culturally valid means of keeping objects active participants within their communities (Newell 2012). Many of these initiatives focus on users in Western communities with significant levels of digital infrastructure, access, and literacy. Hence, data is often collected, managed, and used by external researchers, and the ability and agency of communities to use this data in ways that are helpful to them remain limited. The paper offers insights into how communities can digitise information about their intangible practices in ways beneficial to them. By mobilising autoethnographic methodologies for documentation, our approach supports communities in eliciting the human, social, and historical context in which craft practices develop, using digital methods, visual media, and technologies accessible to the community. The translation of their lived experience and memories into digital formats is explored through key concepts such as connectedness, integrity, and the originality of their practice. The paper presents a prototype infrastructure based on an open set of containerised tools, including data storage infrastructure and accessible web user interfaces for interacting with the data. The infrastructure is designed to enable communities to have agency over their data, including using it through apps and linking it to their physical products. In doing so, the information is compliant with principles such as Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), as well as with the CARE principles for Indigenous Data Governance, by adding a social responsibility dimension to data collection practices. In doing so, it boosts transparency and understanding of these communities, their territories, and their resources, while potentially influencing policies that affect them. The prototyped infrastructure deploys Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) to enable individuals/organisations to prove their identities online without relying on a central authority. The paper also discusses the challenges encountered when developing innovations with communities. This includes both human and infrastructural challenges, including the need for long-term maintenance to ensure that digital infrastructures remain sustainable. In conclusion, the proposed digital approach and infrastructure aim to safeguard the intangible practices that sustain crafting communities and open markets. In doing so, digital technologies become a mechanism for preservation and innovation, enabling future resilience and safeguarding these communities.

Citation Style:    Publication

Digital Infrastructures for sustaining crafting communities: a global south perspective.
Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, Claire Wintle, Tim Weyrich.
DARIAH Annual Event: Digital Arts and Humanities With and For Society: Building Infrastructures of Engagement, Rome, Italy, May 2026.Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, Claire Wintle, and Tim Weyrich. Digital infrastructures for sustaining crafting communities: a global south perspective. In DARIAH Annual Event: Digital Arts and Humanities With and For Society: Building Infrastructures of Engagement, May 2026.Rodriguez Echavarria, K., Wintle, C., and Weyrich, T. 2026. Digital infrastructures for sustaining crafting communities: a global south perspective. In DARIAH Annual Event: Digital Arts and Humanities With and For Society: Building Infrastructures of Engagement.K. Rodriguez Echavarria, C. Wintle, and T. Weyrich, “Digital infrastructures for sustaining crafting communities: a global south perspective,” in DARIAH Annual Event: Digital Arts and Humanities With and For Society: Building Infrastructures of Engagement, May 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.conftool.net/dariah2026/index.php? page=browseSessions&form_session=83#paperID135
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