Critical Craft Technology, Globalization, and Capitalism

by Wilkinson-Weber, Clare M.; DeNicola, Alicia Ory

• ISBN13: 9781472594860
• ISBN10: 147259486X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-04-07
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

From Oaxacan wood carvings to dessert kitchens in provincial France, Critical Craft presents thirteen ethnographies which examine what defines and makes 'craft' in a wide variety of practices from around the world.

Challenging the conventional understanding of craft as a survival, a revival, or something that resists capitalism, the book turns instead to the designers, DIY enthusiasts, traditional artisans, and technical programmers who consider their labor to be craft, in order to comprehend how they make sense of it. The authors' ethnographic studies focus on the individuals and communities who claim a practice as their own, bypassing the question of craft survival to ask how and why activities termed craft are mobilized and reproduced. Moving beyond regional studies of heritage artisanship, the authors suggest that ideas of craft are by definition part of a larger cosmopolitan dialogue of power and identity. By paying careful attention to these sometimes conflicting voices, this collection shows that there is great flexibility in terms of which activities are labelled 'craft'. In fact, there are many related ideas of craft and these shape distinct engagements with materials, people, and the economy.

Case studies from countries including Mexico, Nigeria, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and France draw together evidence based on linguistics, microsociology, and participant observation to explore the shifting terrain on which those engaged in craft are operating. What emerges is a fascinating picture which shows how claims about craft are an integral part of contemporary global change.

Author Biography

Clare M. Wilkinson-Weber is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washington State University Vancouver, USA.

Alicia Ory DeNicola is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Oxford College of Emory University, USA.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction
Clare M. Wilkinson-Weber, Washington State University Vancouver, USA and Alicia Ory DeNicola, Oxford College of Emory University, USA

SECTION ONE: Claims
2: Who Authors Crafts? Producing Woodcarvings and Authorship in Oaxaca, Mexico
Alanna Cant, University of Oslo, Norway
3: Number in Craft: Situated Numbering Practices in Do-It-Yourself Sensor Systems
Richard Beckwith, Intel Corporation, USA
4: Arts and Crafts as a Lived Aesthetic
Fran Mascia-Lees, Rutgers University, USA
5: Designs on Craft: Negotiating Artisanal Knowledge and Identity in India
Clare M. Wilkinson-Weber, Washington State University Vancouver, USA and Alicia Ory DeNicola, Oxford College of Emory University, USA
6: Nomadic Artisans in Central America: Building Plurilocal Communities through Craft
Villalobos Rojas, Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, Costa Rica

SECTION TWO: Conundrums
7. We Have Never Been Analog: Situating the Study of Digital Crafts
Lane DeNicola, Emory University, USA
8: Crafting Good Chocolate in France and the US
Susan Terrio, Georgetown University, USA
9: Creativity, Critique and Conservatism: Keeping Craft Alive among Moroccan Carpet Weavers and French Organic Farmers
Myriem Naji, University College London, UK
10: Refashioning a Global Craft Commodity Flow from the Central Philippines
B. Lynne Milgram, OCAD University, Canada

SECTION THREE: Conflicts
11: Modern Craft: Locating the Material in a Digital Age
Daniela Rosner, University of Washington, USA
12: Materials, the Nation and the Self: Division of Labor in a Taiwanese Craft
Geoffrey Gowlland, University of Oslo, Norway
13: The Weight of Tradition: Crafting Robes, Power and Politics in Nigeria's Zaria City
Elisha Renne, University of Michigan, USA
14: Crafting Muslim Artisans: Agency and Exclusion in India's Urban Craft Communities
Mira Mohsini, Kalamazoo College, USA

Bibliography
Index