Ecologies of ‘ upcycl ing ’ as design for learning in Higher Education

As society changes, new ways of understanding and using existing semiotic resources are needed. This study looks at artefacts from a social semiotic perspective in order to explore the concepts of ‘recycling’ and ‘upcycling’ and their relevance for pedagogy in Higher Education. We look at recycling in terms of ‘texts’ and employ methodological tools from multimodal discourse analysis. ‘Recycling’ involves converting materials from one product to create a different product with a different function, without necessarily adding any type of value. In ‘upcycling’, economic, aesthetic or functional value is always added. ‘Upcycling’ can thus be understood as a process of recontextualization of semiotic resources, in both spatio-linguistic and sensory terms. This paper looks at how resources are recontextualized as part of global ecologies of production and consumption. Then, we explore these insights in the pedagogical domain, looking at possible implications of the principles of ‘upcycling’ and value adding through design as a means for educating global critical citizens.