James Tooze MA (RCA), FRSA is a designer, maker and researcher. His work, both commercial and academic focuses on the interwoven areas of open design, open fabrication, digital manufacturing and sustainable production. Having trained and practiced as a cabinetmaker he has a deep affinity for self-making, craftsmanship and the sharing of making knowledge. He is a graduate of the Design Products programme at the Royal College of Art, where he is now Senior Tutor and currently leading the 2 year EPSRC funded Future Makespaces in Redistributed Manufacturing project.

Over two years, the Future Makespaces in Redistributed Manufacturing project will run events, build a network, fund studies and undertake cross-cutting research to establish what role makerspaces and their communities could play in a future landscape of sustainable production. As partners in the Fab City network, the project team is particularly interested in the distributions and concentration of agency, risk and reward associated with goods, services and design moving towards ‘shipping data not products.’ Platform co-ops could be an essential part of enabling decentralised manufacturing infrastructure that is optimised for both people and planet.