To browse Academia. In particular, the democratization brought up by the information technologies in terms of usability, communication and connectivity, is opening to a wide reorganization of the processes of creation, production and distribution of goods and services, while enabling forms of reappropriation of the means of production.
The process of digitalization is leading to the transformation of the nature of enterprises, while opening to micro-factories and "personal capitalism", able to share locally and globally skills and knowledge, as well as resources and tools, to the accomplishment of projects and products. The division between workers and their reificated work, and be tween this and its product, is therefore virtually abolished, since the means of production become appropriable and subject to be made in common.
The computer seems to be as an universal tool, universally accessible, through which the entire knowledge and every activity can be in common.
The new generations of designers have come to terms with deindustrialization and, while their predecessors had a role in the assembly line with manufacturing processes, today's designers are becoming aware of their service and strategic role concerning innovation. If industry is living an historical shift of its role within society and production, the designer is in the position of independently incorporating all the productive aspects in his own office, from the concept, to the manufacturing, to the communication and the distribution, and even crowdfunding the project.
Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, This paper analyzes some self-production and craft processes which can contribute to social innovation. Object of this research is the concept of self-production, considered as a humancentered design process held by a designer-maker who, working within a community of artisans or a platform of digital fabrication, manages the entire process, from design, to production, distribution and communication.
