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Mar­got Bustamante

Research Assistant

Subjects
Organisation Circular economy Creativity Sustainability Ecology Culture

Primary research areas

Circular Craft as Alternative Growth

I research how circular craft practices challenge conventional business models of scaling and extraction, and how craft makers can demonstrate different paths to what success means.

Care and More-than-Human Relations

I investigate how relationships with waste, materials, and more-than-human actors reshape what organizations can be. Care emerges not only as feeling, but as political practice that resists extraction and nurtures collective responsibility.

Speculative Methods and Art-Based Research

I explore how art-based research captures detailed, sensory, and relational dimensions that conventional research often overlooks, opening space for marginalized voices and alternative possibilities.

Exploring how craft, circularity and care create alternative futures

I care about alternative ways of organizing. Through case studies on circular craft making, I explore how care, slowness and community can take precedence over profit accumulation and conventional growth.

Through ethnographic work with ceramic studios and craft makers in Denmark, Italy and Switzerland, I investigate how they serve as living examples of sustainable organizing.

Looking ahead, I plan to expand this research to Latin America, particularly Mexico, using visual ethnography through a postcolonial and feminist lens.

My research helps:

My work opens dialogues with craft makers to reimagine growth based on their values and skills, offering models that can inform small businesses seeking alternatives to conventional expansion.

Through HEPHAESTUS, my research supports European Parliament policy dialogues, helping shape regulations that protect craft makers and sustainable production.

Recent research projects

Her­it­age in EuroPe: new tecH­no­lo­gies in crAft for prE­Serving and in­nov­aT­ing fU­tureS (HEP­H­AES­TUS)

The pro­ject aims to re­search, pre­serve and in­nov­ate craft sec­tors to de­liv­er a cut­ting-edge, cre­at­ive, and sus­tain­able tech­no­logy-driv­en eco­nomy based on cul­tur­al her­it­age. 
HEPHAESTUS