Abstract
British wool (BW), once central to the UK economy, is now economically marginal yet ecologically regenerative, revealing deep tensions between sustainability rhetoric and material practice. This paper reframes BW as a transitional material, whose value, meaning, and use are shifting across ecological, infrastructural, and discursive systems. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 35 stakeholders across the BW supply chain, combined with policy and industry analysis, the study applies reflexive thematic analysis to examine how value is produced, diminished, and potentially restored. these findings are situated within new materialist and posthuman theory and emerging sustainability regulation (ESPR and Digital Product Passports), the paper argues that design research can re-mediate transitional materials by integrating ecological data, provenance, and care into material systems. The study contributes a conceptual model of transitional materiality that links design, policy, and ecology, offering pathways for regenerative and circular textile futures.
Keywords
transitional materialities; British wool; regenerative textiles; supply chain equity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.333
Citation
Kapsali, V., and James, N. (2026) Material in Transition: Rethinking the Value of British Wool in Sustainable and Circular Futures, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.333
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Material in Transition: Rethinking the Value of British Wool in Sustainable and Circular Futures
British wool (BW), once central to the UK economy, is now economically marginal yet ecologically regenerative, revealing deep tensions between sustainability rhetoric and material practice. This paper reframes BW as a transitional material, whose value, meaning, and use are shifting across ecological, infrastructural, and discursive systems. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 35 stakeholders across the BW supply chain, combined with policy and industry analysis, the study applies reflexive thematic analysis to examine how value is produced, diminished, and potentially restored. these findings are situated within new materialist and posthuman theory and emerging sustainability regulation (ESPR and Digital Product Passports), the paper argues that design research can re-mediate transitional materials by integrating ecological data, provenance, and care into material systems. The study contributes a conceptual model of transitional materiality that links design, policy, and ecology, offering pathways for regenerative and circular textile futures.