Pattern change
| Element | Extractive approach | Regenerative approach |
| Community role | Consulted subjects | Co-creating partners |
| Knowledge flow | One-way extraction | Reciprocal exchange |
| Economic benefit | Flows to designer/clients | Flows to communities |
| Problem framing | Defined by outsiders | Community-identified priorities |
| Solution ownership | Designer intellectual property | Community controlled |
Design is not neutral. Everyday design decision either reproduces existing power structures or actively works to transform them. When design is approached as a radical act of agency, there is implict understanding that designers hold the power to reshape relationships, redistribute resources and reimagine futures.
Our changing world demands new forms of collaboration that transcend extractive relationships. Climate crises, cultural erosion and extractive global economics threaten both biological and cultural diversity. By positioning design as a radical act that creates new forms of relatedness across other cultures, species and knowledge systems, rice becomes the medium through which we practice kinship. It activates possibility for redistributing power and creates new economic models where value flows to originating communities. Our project deliberately breaks disciplinary boundaries to mirror the interconnected nature of ecological and social systems and whilst we have not been able to enter in great depth for a project of this size (and without the funding to do so), it is hoped that our acts catalyse new thinking and evidence ways collaborating disciplines can and do work:
Design anthropology: Understanding cultural relationships with rice cultivation
Ecological science: Biodiversity preservation through traditional farming methods.
Community development: Economic empowerment through knowledge valorisation.
Regenerative agriculture: Soil health and sustainable farming practices.
Cultural studies: preserving and evolving traditional narratives.
Material innovation: Rice waste transformation into contemporary applications.