Potter, G., 2025.

Stockport Creative Campus: Extractive Pedagogies?

This paper presents an analysis of 'live' student projects delivered by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) as part of Stockport Creative Campus (SCC), a project which links university activity with a public authority, partner organizations, and the citizens of Stockport, Greater Manchester (UK). Recent decades have seen a growth in the adoption of project-based learning within design education. Current literature focuses on the benefits of such approaches for students' learning and their future role as professional designers in society, however, there is a lack of critical discussion regarding the value these approaches have beyond the learning experience. As argued by DiSalvo, the pursuit of innovation and uncritical application of design methods to address societal issues risks reproducing and re-asserting structures of power over communities that we work with. Through an analysis of four student projects taking place across the departments of Design and Architecture at MMU, this paper questions the value of 'live' student projects for the communities they seek to 'fix'. We outline four pedagogic models and assess their contribution to the wider aims of Stockport Creative Campus, examining their potential contribution to social and economic regeneration and the risks they pose in perpetuating extractive practices.