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Craft practice has experienced a sharp rise in popularity since the late 2000s, partly through the 'aura of the analogue' and the desire for authentic, handmade products in an increasingly fast paced, digitalised world (Luckman, 2015) but also because of digital platforms such as Etsy and social media enabling 'anyone' to become a craft entrepreneur. This book brings together historical, policy and individual narratives to inform a broad understanding of craft entrepreneurship.
Drawing on case studies from around the world, Craft Entrepreneurship considers questions of identity, community, and the digital in craft entrepreneurship. In doing so, it finds craft activities to be positioned between or across the arts, heritage, notions of a bohemian lifestyle and the challenges of micro-entrepreneurship. By engaging with the contradictions and fragility of sustaining a craft practice, the chapters in this book contribute to different perspectives for entrepreneurship studies. The contributions to this volume illustrate the craft entrepreneurs' identity, motivation and sense of creative purpose through their craft, as these collide with the tensions brought about through entrepreneurship.
List of contents
Introduction - Craft Entrepreneurship
Part 1: Craft Entrepreneurship & Cultural Policy
1. Craft - The new entrepreneurship?
Julia Bennett, Crafts Council UK
2. Far out crafting
Andrea Peach, Robert Gordon University
3. Craft entrepreneurship and public policies in Serbia
Hristina Mikic, Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation Serbia
4. Artisan or designer: Montreal craft workers and the global discourse on creativity
Guillaume Sirois, University of Montreal
Part 2: Craft Entrepreneurship in the digital age
5. "Safe spaces" and "cultural appropriation" - opportunities and challenges for BAME women makers using social media
Karen Patel, Birmingham City University
6. Online entrepreneurial practices of the craft entrepreneur
Julia Griffey, Webster University
7. "I can't put that out there as me": Exploring the relationship between creative identity and intellectual property in contemporary craft
Lauren England, King's College London
Part 3: Crafting a Life
8. From amateur to all-business: women on the verge of craft entrepreneurship
Mary Kay Culpepper, Buffalo State university
9. Smoothing out the peaks and troughs: examining the sustainability strategies of island-based creative practitioners
Katherine Champion, University of Stirling
10. Becoming a craft entrepreneur: a journey of identity change and conflict
Vishalakshi Roy, University of Warwick
11. Crafty women and entrepreneurship
Annette Naudin, Birmingham City University
Part 4: Craft Entrepreneurship & Community
12. Tight-knit: shaping a hybrid entrepreneurial model for empowering women in craft communities
Jaleesa Wells, De Montfort University
13. Collaborative mindsets and collective action plans: supporting the strategic development of Scotland's craft network
Louise Valentine, University of Dundee
14. Making it is gendered work: how "For the love of making" within Maker Culture obscures gendered labour hierarchies within Canadian "DIT" communities
Jessica Ring, Carleton University
About the author
Edited by Annette Naudin and Karen Patel
Summary
This book reveals the individual experience of craft entrepreneurship, drawing on case studies from around the world, considering questions of identity, policy, community, and the digital in crafting a life.
