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This edited book focuses on the organization and meaning of craft work in contemporary society. It considers the relationship between craft and place and how this enables the construction of a meaningful relationship with objects of production and consumption. The book explores the significance of raw materials, the relationship between the body, the crafted object and the mind, and the importance of skill, knowledge and learning in the making process. Through this, it raises important questions about the role of craft in facing future challenges by challenging the logic of globalized production and consumption.
The Organization of Craft Work encompasses international analyses from the United States, France, Italy, Australia, Canada, the UK and Japan involving a diverse range of sectors, including brewing, food and wine production, clothing and shoe making, and perfumery. The book will be of interest to students and academic researchers in organization studies, marketing and consumer behaviour, business ethics, entrepreneurship, sociology of work, human resource management, cultural studies, geography, and fashion and design. In addition, the book will be of interest to practitioners and organizations with an interest in the development and promotion of craft work.
List of contents
Introduction: Understanding contemporary craft work
Emma Bell, Maria Laura Toraldo, Scott Taylor and Gianluigi Mangia
1. Craft in Japan
Robin Holt and Yutaka Yamauchi
2. Crafted in America: from culture to profession
Shelby Solomon and Blake Mathias
3. Wine, the authenticity taste regime and rendering craft
Jennifer Smith Maguire
4. Organising the home as making space: crafting scale, identity, and boundary contestation
Susan Luckman and Jane Andrew
5. Smells like craft spirit: craft as empowerment and social movement in niche perfumery
Claus Noppeney and Nada Endrissat
6. Deploying social memory for international recognition: the role of place and tradition in an Italian silk tie maker
Maria Laura Toraldo, Stefano Consiglio and Gianluigi Mangia
7. Back to the brewster: craft brewing, gender and the dialectical interplay of retraditionalisation and innovation
Chris Land, Neil Sutherland and Scott Taylor
8. Craft as a contested term: meaning diversities between entrepreneurs and consumers in the craft-brewing industry
Nadine Waehning, Maria Karampela and Juho Pesonen
9. Making livelihoods within communities of practice: the place of guild organisations in the craft sector
Nicola J. Thomas and Doreen Jakob
10. The cordwainers lair: contingency in bespoke shoemaking
Robert Ott
11. Craft as resistance: a conversation about craftivism, embodied enquiry and craft-based methodologies
Ann Rippin and Sheena J. Vachhani
12. Being maker-centric: making as method for self-organization and achieving craft impact in local communities and economies
Fiona Hackney, Deirdre Figueiredo, Laura Onions, Gavin Rogers and Jana Milovanovic
13. Reflecting on the relationship between craft and history: perspectives, resources and contemporary implications
Richard Blundel
About the author
Emma Bell is Professor of Organisation Studies at The Open University, UK.
Gianluigi Mangia is Professor of Organization Studies at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and Head of Department of Management, Organizations and Human Resources at the Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione (SNA) in Rome, Italy.
Scott Taylor is Reader in Leadership and Organization Studies at University of Birmingham, UK.
Maria Laura Toraldo is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant and Lecturer at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland.
Summary
The Organization of Craft Work develops a diverse range of theoretical perspectives for understanding craft work will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners in business and management disciplines.
Report
"The rise of artisanal and craft production is an extraordinary feature of contemporary consumption and employment. Whether a cynical branding exercise or a more profound nostalgic rediscovery of authentic labour this wonderfully timely book offers important new critical insights into craft work." -Tim Strangleman, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. Author of Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of Park Royal, Oxford University Press
