The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour
Drawing on fieldwork amongst lacemakers in Slovakia, this article examines the relationship between practices of making and the production of value in artisanal labour. The author shows that the processes of making challenged artisans’ perceptions of the natural distribution of agency between humans...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publications
2020
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| _version_ | 1797107479045210112 |
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| author | Makovicky, N |
| author_facet | Makovicky, N |
| author_sort | Makovicky, N |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Drawing on fieldwork amongst lacemakers in Slovakia, this article examines the relationship between practices of making and the production of value in artisanal labour. The author shows that the processes of making challenged artisans’ perceptions of the natural distribution of agency between humans and objects, resulting in feelings of ontological insecurity. Arguing that they perceived this insecurity as a problem of ethics, as well as a problem of agency, she demonstrates how the intellectual and sensual experience of manufacture was constitutive of the ways in which artisans perceived the value of their craftwork. Taking this approach, the article seeks to disrupt the anthropological habit of framing questions about value in terms of domestic economies, global markets and aesthetic regimes, and making in terms of skilled practice, embodied knowledge and knowledge transmission. The author also suggests that scholars ought to pay more attention to the ways in which ethical considerations are grounded in our ontological disposition towards the material world. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:15:10Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:5ad22ebf-803b-4d85-8ce2-4a7e6e040a33 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:15:10Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:5ad22ebf-803b-4d85-8ce2-4a7e6e040a332022-08-10T10:25:31ZThe seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labourJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5ad22ebf-803b-4d85-8ce2-4a7e6e040a33EnglishSymplectic ElementsSAGE Publications2020Makovicky, NDrawing on fieldwork amongst lacemakers in Slovakia, this article examines the relationship between practices of making and the production of value in artisanal labour. The author shows that the processes of making challenged artisans’ perceptions of the natural distribution of agency between humans and objects, resulting in feelings of ontological insecurity. Arguing that they perceived this insecurity as a problem of ethics, as well as a problem of agency, she demonstrates how the intellectual and sensual experience of manufacture was constitutive of the ways in which artisans perceived the value of their craftwork. Taking this approach, the article seeks to disrupt the anthropological habit of framing questions about value in terms of domestic economies, global markets and aesthetic regimes, and making in terms of skilled practice, embodied knowledge and knowledge transmission. The author also suggests that scholars ought to pay more attention to the ways in which ethical considerations are grounded in our ontological disposition towards the material world. |
| spellingShingle | Makovicky, N The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour |
| title | The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour |
| title_full | The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour |
| title_fullStr | The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour |
| title_full_unstemmed | The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour |
| title_short | The seduction of craft: Making and value in artisanal labour |
| title_sort | seduction of craft making and value in artisanal labour |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT makovickyn theseductionofcraftmakingandvalueinartisanallabour AT makovickyn seductionofcraftmakingandvalueinartisanallabour |