ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how 'textile thinking' can be used as an effective strategy for generating novel concepts, problem solving, and creatively overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary research contexts. The assumption that economic growth, in particular, is maintainable or indeed desirable is under scrutiny. Whilst sustainable production and consumption remain an important part of sustainability agendas, development is more broadly perceived as the cultivation of environmental and social conditions that will support human well-being indefinitely. In relation to materials, textiles constitute a natural site for interdisciplinarity. Defined as flexible materials consisting of networks of interlacing natural or synthetic fibres, textiles are produced using various processes, including felting, weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or bonding. 'Design thinking' is considered by some as a new way for describing a set of practices that are long-established elements of design disciplines. However, there is a broadening perception of the contexts, problems, and challenges to which these practices can be appropriately applied.
