Conflux of interest. Revealing multiple value systems in socially motivated collaborative university based projects

This paper discusses how collaborative and interdisciplinary socially-motivated projects and academic project-based research within the disciplines of architecture and design occupy a special territory where professional and social norms might be challenged and new types of relationships might be forged that question prevailing practices. After an initial section setting the context of the political economy of such projects, the second part of the paper reflects on the practice of these types of projects through the lens of specific projects carried out with external organisations ranging from relatively large networks of practice and research to a small, emerging community land trust. These reflections call for a new vocabulary to help articulate the value systems underpinning such projects in a way that bypasses the normative focus on competition and its corollary conflict of interest.