Globalisation and Artisan Labour in the Third World

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Precarious Production: Globalisation and Artisan Labour in the Third WorldAuthor(s): Timothy J. ScraseSource: Third World Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Jun., 2003), pp. 449-461Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3993379

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ThirdWorldQuarterly,Vol24, No 3, pp 449-461, 2003 Carfax PublishingTaylor Francis roup

recarious production globalisationn d r t i s n l b o u r n t hh i r d W o r l d

TIMOTHYJ SCRASEABSTRACT This article provides an overviewof recent literatureand studies ofThird Worldartisans in the context of economic globalisation. Drawing uponrecentlypublished research conducted in various countries in CentralAmerica,Asia andAfrica, it demonstrates hatglobalisation has intensified heprecariousexistenceof artisancommunities hrough ncreasingglobal competition, hemassproduction of craft goods, and shifting trends in fashion, cultural taste andaesthetics. Both governmentand non-government ffortsat supportingartisansare criticised for providing limited and ineffectualprogrammes and policies.Moreover,recent consumer trends like fair-trade' shopping are likewise onlypiecemeal and limited in terms of the long-term support they can give tostrugglingartisan communities.Whenartisans survive, theydo so mainlyon theperiphery of both global and local capitalist economies; this is a situation thathas rarely changed over the decades. In various ways, and in specific regionalcontexts,theglobalisation of productionexacerbates,rather thandiminishes,themarginalstatusof artisan communities.

There is no doubt that artisans live a precarious, fracturedand marginalisedexistence. It has been estimatedby the United Nationsthat,in India for example,over the past30 yearsthe numbersof artisanshavedeclinedby at least 30%, withmany artisans joining the ranks of casual wage labourers and the informaleconomy.' Mass produced,standardisedand cheap factory items have replacedmany of the various goods once produced by the artisans.2Moreover,essentialrawmaterials ike skins andhides, certaintypes of wood, metals, shells and othercraft materialshave eitherbecome too expensive for the artisansto purchase,orelse have been diverted to mass production. Those artisans that do surviveinvariablyproducefor a worldmarket,and so daily confrontthe vagaries of thatmarket.3Significantly,the issues and problemsaddressed n this article apply tomany artisancommunities drawnfrom the developing world, but especially tothose marginalartisanalgroupsand craft workers n Centraland Latin America,Africa,andthroughoutAsia.4The significanceof craftproduction s that it crosses all sectors of the modemglobal economy-from pre-industrial o industrialand post-industrial.5UnlikeTimothyJ Scrase is in the Sociology Program of the University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.E-mail: [email protected] 0143-6597 printISSN 1360-2241 online/03/030449-13 ? 2003 Third WorldQuarterlyDOI: 10.1080/0143659032000084401 449


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TIMOTHY SCRASEsome other forms of labour,artisanproductioncan also enable a degreeof labourautonomy for those who have limited access to the cash economy. As craftproduction s generally household- based, its analysis raises importantquestionsconcerning the changing natureof gender and generationalrelations within thehousehold. Finally, with the coming of a globalised economy, coupled with post-modern consumer sentiments,craftsrepresenta traditional or homely) form ofconsumergoods, which, for some buyers,have great appeal.In otherwords, theconsumption of crafts allows for a reconnectionback to earlierand more earthyforms and designs in a fragmented, fractured and technological world.The discussion in the following sections of this articlehighlights the precariousnature of artisan employment and its inevitable consequences for familiesand communities. Despite the West's fluctuatinginterest in all things 'ethnic','traditional'and 'different',the daily life of the Third World artisanremainsoneof struggle, povertyandexploitation.

Artisanand craftproductionn theThirdWorld:an overviewof recentresearchIn 1993 in her edited book Craftsin the WorldMarket,the anthropologistJuneNash arguedthat crafts are the medium of communicationbetween people wholive profoundlydifferent ives, in differentcountries,but who can respondto thesymbols, texturesandformsthatexpressdifferentcultural raditions.She went onto write that there is now a reverse flow of goods from the fortmer olonies backto the industrialcentresof the world as consumersseek out the exotic anduniqueobjects of handicraftproduction.6Westernconsumers want to know more aboutthe products and producersof the items they are buying. While the activity ofbuying a handicraftmay imbue the purchaserwith a sense of buying tradition,orof supportinga strugglingcommunityof workers,the art of craftproduction,aneveryday activity, may itself be a form of resistance and strugglein the face ofglobal economic and culturalchanges. Craftproduction,as James Scott pointsout in the case of Malay peasants, may in fact be a 'weapon of the weak', anactivity which frequently operates at the margins of the mainstream economyand the state.7Importantly,t helps maintainfamily, household and communityrelations, providing the producerswith a sense of symbolic power and main-taining a localised cultural dentity.It is importantto recognise, however, that artisan production is frequently ahighly contested and antagonisticform of production.The relentless commodi-fication of craft production, inherent gender segregation and discriminationagainstwomen andgirls, and a generationaldivide are evident throughout tudiesof artisan communities. The increasing commodification of craft production isindicativeof the increasing globalisationof productionmore generally. Variousstudies have described the ways artisan communities have attempted to re-organise and adjust to changing global economic circumstances and marketdemands. One body of literature,for instance, explores this process of inter-nationalised craft commercialisation in terms of commodity chains that linkartisans,wholesalers and first world departmentstores.8The trade in artisanalgoods themselves is largely dominatedby a handful of importingcountries-450


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GLOBALISATION NDARTISANLABOUR N THETHIRDWORLDnamely Germany, he USA, the UK and France, illustratingthat the industryislargely at the beck and call of dominant first world corporations and tradingregimes.9Other scholars have reportedon artisan communities that seek marketniches or develop flexible specialisation in their manufacturing of crafts inorder to survive.10The commercialisationand global expansion of certain craftindustriesconcomitantlycan lead to severelocalised effects. For example, this isdramatically llustrated n the case of Indonesian extiles, where the developmentof this industry into a large, commercialised manufacturing process whichcreated 80 000 jobs has led to the subsequent demise of an estimated 410 000traditionalartisan obs in weaving andassociated crafts like dyeing.1'It is important not to generalise, however, about the extent to which globalcapital transforms artisan communities. In a recent study, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfield argues that increasing competition as a result of economic neo-liberalism and globalisation among artisancommunities n Otavalo, Ecuador,hasrevitalised these communities, opening up new marketsandopportunitiesandre-creating interdependenciesbetween artisans, merchantsand shopkeepers.Whilethere is a sense of community survival there nevertheless remains a pervasivesystem of inequality wrought by transnationalism and competition. As heargues: 'I want to analyze the distinctiveinequalitiesthat afflict people seekinglivelihoods in capitalism'sausteremarginsandexplain how internaldiscoursesofcompetition naturalize these inequalities as an acceptable (for the moment)community condition'. 2 Tanya Korovkin similarly provides detailed evidenceconcerning recent economic and cultural changes confronting the artisans ofOtavalo, which, she argues,led to a transformationn, rather handisappearanceof, the local Quichuaculture.As she writes: 'Not only did the marketexpansionin Otavalo fail to destroythe communityinstitutions but is also gave rise to anindigenous intelligentsiawhose members redefinedIndianidentityin accordancewith new culturalandeconomic realities'.It is notable, therefore, that in mainly ethnographicstudies of the localisedeffects of the commercialisationof craft production, complex and subtle socialchanges are unearthed.In her article on the embroidery (chikan) industry inLucknow, India, Clare Wilkinson-Weber analyses the way this industry haschangedover time to become a mass-marketndustry.Once dominatedby highlyskilled male embroiders who aremostly now the agentsor middlemen)it is nowdominatedby semi-skilled Muslim women, most of whom work from home-which keeps them in purdah-and produce coarse, cheap products for alargely local market.'4This raises another key point: craft production is animportant ndustryfor the employmentof women. Significantly though,the finalstage of the process-the selling on of the finishedgoods-remains an inherentlymasculinetask. This is confirmed n severalimportant tudies of women's home-based, subsistenceproduction n varioussettingsin the Asia Pacific and,as such,revealsthe unique ways women areexploited by both their class andgender,andeven, in some specific cases, their religious affiliations.'5Comparative, inter-countryresearchreveals conclusively that women lack control over the distribu-tion and marketingof crafts, exacerbatingtheir inequality within the industry.Moreover 'womanly' traits like docility, dexterity and obedience are crucialfactors in selecting workers, subsequentlydenying similaropportunities o those

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TIMOTHY SCRASEwomen who do not fit the 'feminine, obedient worker' stereotype. Ideas ofdomesticity and the 'ideal' role of women intersect at various levels in thecraft productionprocess, leaving many women at home, thereby having to mindchildren, cook and clean and produce craft goods on time and for low rates ofpay.'6The feminine domesticationof craftproduction ntersects with patriarchalperceptions of women's sexuality where, in the case of the Philippines forexample, menstruating women are prohibited from the site of dyeing.17Finally, the domestic natureof women's craft productionmeans that it is not onlyimpossible for them to form craftunions, but also difficult for them to developstrategiesto overcome entrenchedpatriarchal tructures mbeddedwithin artisanindustries.The study of chikan production described above highlights the pitfalls of anindustry hat is increasinglycommodified.As the artisan s paid per piece, and asthe market s demandingmore, the artisansthemselves are becoming de-skilled,only bothering to learn one or two popular stitches. Even urban artisans inLucknow were criticising the work of rural-based mbroidererswhose work wasthe most simplistic. Indeed,the ruralembroidererswerepaid even less perpiece,emphasising the levels of exploitation between more organised, or wellconnected urbanproducersand the ruralartisans.Thusit is ironic that the relativesuccess andpopularityof the craft s leadingto its partialdemise, at least in termsof the level of skill of the artisans and lack of varietyof high quality,finishedproduct.The exploitative natureof craft productionis not confined solely to genderdiscrimination. Much of the industryis piecemeal, repetitive, and based on anintensive andprevailingdivision of labourbasedon both class andgender.This ishighlighted, for example, in a 1988 comparative study of artisan labourin India, the Philippines and Indonesia and its results are indicative of theinequalities found in the industry throughoutthe Third World.'8Craftworkerstend to have little formaleducation,arerarely organisedand so are subjectto arange of exploitative work conditions like poor safety, low wages and lack offormalisation of their craft skills. Needless to say, it is the opportunisticmiddlemen who exploit these precarious labour conditions to their financialbenefit. On thispoint, VirginiaMiralao, n herstudyof a rangeof Philippinecraftindustries, ike rattan urniture onstruction,hand weaving, mat making and handembroidery,describes the variousphysical risks and healthhazards, ow rates ofpay, lack of labour unions and labourlaws, and general exploitativeconditionsfaced by workers in these industries.'9In another example illustrative of theinherent health risks to workers, Dan Imhoff describes the case of a femaleartisanwho, afterpurchasingcheap dyes (containinghigh levels of heavy metalsand toxic chemicals) from a local market,proceededto empty the dye bathontohergardenbed.20Research demonstratesan intrinsicrelationshipbetween various industriesandartisan production. This is especially the case with tourism and handicraftproduction.The immense growthin international ourism to resorts like those inBali or Thailand,or the coastal resorts n Mexico or the Caribbean, s matchedbyan increase in tourist handicraftsof various kinds. However, like the tourismindustry tself, researchshows thatthe touristhandicraftndustry s seasonal and452


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GLOBALISATION NDARTISANLABOUR NTHETIERDWORLDfluctuates between varioussites depending upon the market,advertising,govern-ment supportand other factors.21This is apart from the fact that the handicraftmarket s invariably ightly controlled by a few agents, is highly exploitative andearns relatively little for the individual artisan.22The fluidity and precariousnature of Third World artisanproduction is exemplified in the case of Guate-malantextiles. Imhoffdescribes how the market or these goods in the USA tookoff in the early 1990s and was intimately connected with youth andbackpackingtravel to the region. Every conceivable accessory item, like water carriers andbackpacks, were festooned with attractive and colourful patterns unique toGuatemalanculture.However, in their race to secure a slice of the burgeoningmarket,Guatemalanartisanscompeted with each other to the point of market-saturation,over-supply and declining prices and declining marketdesire. This isdespite their attempts to branch out into differentareas, lower their prices andadapt o marketconditions.23June Nash's collection of papers published in 1993 deals with several issuesamong the possibilities and pitfalls of Latin Americanartisanalproductionon aglobal level. These problems include: dominance by TNcs and large monopolyretail businesses; shifting fashion styles and trends; and general marketcorruptionand unreliability.24 imilarconclusions to Nash's earlieredited bookare to be found in the more recent edited collection Artisans and Cooperativesand HandmadeMoney.25Like the situation in Central America the perils andpitfalls of craftwork is experienced by artisans on the periphery. KyokoKusakabe, for example, describes the ways in which women weavers on theLaos-Thailand borderexperiencethe highs and lows of producingfor a marketthat is rapidlybeing subjectto liberalisingforces. While opportunitiesare closedoff for some (the 'old' or traditionalweavers),othersexperience the benefits of acommercialised weaving scene. Other alternatives for survival by artisanscompeting in the global marketplace,such as small producersbinding togetherand subcontractingheirwares, rarelyoffer long-term gains. In the case of Albayartisan subcontractors in the Philippines, it was found that those who wereinitially successful preferred o invest theirprofits in fast-moving, high-yieldingventuresrather han re-invest in the craftenterpriseswhere the marketremainedinsecureandfickle.27

Quotidiancrafts,elite crafts andconsumptionThe success of artisanalcrafts withinthe widernational andinternationalmarketslargely depends on the whims of global consumerdemand.We can distinguishbetween artisancrafts for everydayuse-'quotidian crafts'-and those that arefundamentallyfor status-'elite crafts'. In terms of a global market,followingBourdieu,we can delineate a status distinction n the types of craftsproducedandconsumed.28Artisanal crafts that are seen to be of high quality, rare, with greatartisticbeauty,or intricatelyconstructed have a specialised and elite consumermarket.These elite consumers are most likely to be able to relate tales concern-ing the craftinvolved,wherethe item is from,the locationof, and specific detailsabout,the artisancommunity,and so forth.29On the otherhand,therecirculatesaveritable variety of everyday craft goods like women's cloth bags, backpacks,

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TIMOTHY SCRASEleather wallets and handbags,wall hangings, floor rugs, and dressjewellery, tonamejust a few, which arelargelyfor global mass consumption.At the local level quotidian crafts are under threat. For instance, cheapplastic sandalsarereplacing leather ones and, in turn,aredisplacingthe mass ofindigenous leather shoemakers n countriessuch as India.30 ikewise, clay potteryitems are being replaced by plastic or aluminiumplates, bowls, jugs and cups.Cotton weave is substituted by synthetic cloth, with the advantage that it islighter, cheaper and rarely needs ironing. There are numerousexamples where atraditional craft is subsumed by mass-produced items. Artisans themselvesare more than aware of this, however, and indeed many develop strategies toaccommodate luctuatingglobal marketsand interest n their crafts. Studies showthat artisans can quite readily adapt and change, often producing inferior craftsfor a global marketthat have little resemblanceto the meaning-rich,specialisedcrafts that are reserved for ceremonies or local consumption. Thus we candifferentiate between strategic craft production in a globalised market andtraditional raftproduction or a specifically localisedmarket.Notablyabsent n the literature n artisanproductionare related studies of craftconsumption-on the meaning,motivationsand reasonsfor consumingartisanalcrafts, analysingthe interrelationshipshatdevelopbetweenThirdWorldartisansand Westernconsumers.This in itself can be a fruitfulareaof enquiry,as demon-strated n arecentstudyof the culturemarketof Niger.In this instance,the authoranalyses the intricateconnections built up between Westernconsumers and arti-sans in the context of shifting notions of 'traditional' and 'modern'and describes the ways economically successful Tuaregartisans redefine their'traditional' craft and their place within the conventional socio-classificatorysystem.As Davis explainsin her conclusion:

'Modern' artisanal objects thus represent a striking transformation betweenWesterners and non-Westerners. For Westerners, Tuareg artisans appeal to acontemporarypolitical consciousness that drives expatriatesto develop egalitarianrelationshipswith local people...For Tuareg artisans,Western expatriatescomprisea new and reliable clientele who grantto artisansa novel culturalstatus, along withwealth and esteem refused by their traditional noble patrons. 'Modern' artisanalobjects mirrorthese changes: their Western utility, indelible Tuareg style, andnovelty represent he adjustmentof TuaregsandWesterners o each other and to anas-yet obscure deal of postcolonial modernity.3'

In certaincircumstances, herefore, thereis a sense of political and social unityfelt by the Westernconsumerin 'helping-out'the strugglingor marginalartisanpeoples. Yet, fundamentally, relatively little is known about the reasons whyWesternconsumersbuy craftobjects that areproducedby Third World workers.Are they motivated for reasons of fashion, pity, status, memory (of travels),beauty,television images, or a combinationof these? Moreover, do the reasonsproffered by Westerners differ from the purchasing motivations of localconsumers?32With the emergenceof 'ethnicchic', the hybridisationof fashion, and a returnto 'earthy'and 'natural'forms and colours in interiordesign, Third World craftgoods andpatternshave become popular.Apartfromoverseastravel, t is largely

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GLOBALISATION ND ARTISANLABOUR NTHETHIRDWORLDby way of catalogues and visits to 'fair-trade' tores that Westernconsumers areable to purchase 'authentic'artisanalproducts.Apartfrom mail-ordercatalogues,internetwebsites have also become importantpromotersof Third World artisanalgoods.33Yet, with few exceptions, this again remainsa largely under researchedarea. In her article 'Selling Guatemala',Carol Hendricksonanalyses the portrayalof Mayan and Guatemalan lothing and handicraft tems in a range of mail-ordercatalogues circulating n the USA. She reveals the variousways these cataloguesconstructthe 'natural', 'traditional'and even, in some cases, 'primitive' imagesof Guatemalan life that are used to appeal to consumers. Western consumerssometimes '... are made more aware of the situation n that country and Maya doearn money from these businesses'.34 But, in each case, products have to betailored to suit the foreign audience, the 'horror' stories of certain communitiesare toned down, and the fact that the crafts marketed overseas are producedaccording to strict quality control measures is never revealed.35 Fair trade'shopping, which involves the marketing of Third World artisanal crafts andproducewith the intendedaim of linking first world consumers to Third Worldproducers, has been critiqued as counter-hegemonic consumerism. In thiscontext, Josee Johnson critically explores how fair-trade discourse constructsvariousunderstandings f development,consumerismand social justice and whatthese discourses reveal about issues like over-consumption n the industrialisedcores and globalised structural nequality.36 he finds that fair-tradediscoursetends to 'rely on individualistic notions of choice and consumer sovereignty,obscures the structurallinkages between core and periphery in a globalisedeconomy, and belies the collective environmental mplicationsof individual freechoice in the marketplace'.3 Significantly, she also points out that, rather thanproviding or stimulating any serious discussion of structural inequality, fair-trade discourse instead supportsa more liberal, depoliticised vision of culturaldifference. In this context, 'ethnic branding', 'tradition', and 'authenticity'therebybecome important eatures in the marketingof crafts. To illustrate thistrend, Lynn Stephen reports on the integrationand 'ethnicisation' of Mexicanrugs in the North American consumermarkets,showing how the 'branding' ofethnic identity is an important marketing tool, despite the revelation that themajorityof 'Mexican'rugsare now madein India.38

Government ndnon-government rganisationnterventionSpecialised government agencies and various non-government organisations(NGOs) have aimed to preservethe range of crafts unique to their nations. Not-withstanding he good intentof state or nationalpolicies to preserve 'traditional'crafts, there is nevertheless an underlying paternalism n such policies when thevery same stateis pursuinga broaderglobal industrialandmanufacturing gendathat competes with, and will ultimately lead to the marginalisation, or evencomplete demise, of local artisanindustries.Governmentpolicies and bureauc-racies, set up to promoteartisan ndustries n various ThirdWorldcountries,havebeen criticised for their failureproperlyto recognise and promote the needs ofcraft workers.39The failure to recognise 'on-the-ground',local knowledge andincorporate this into employment policies and planning shows a disdain for

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TIMOTHY SCRASEmarginal workers and so reproducesthe failures of top-down policy making soindicative of ill-conceived, developmentalist policies. Moreover, who decideswhat activities are worth supporting and what specific crafts are consideredunique to a nation and its peoples, and why is a significant question to pose.In this sense, the state involves itself in a process of what I term 'selective tra-ditionalising', a process which can assist some communitiesto survive but maycondemn manyothers. For instance, we can critically ask: why isn't the everydayartisanal activity of making simple bricks, tiles or bowls deserving of stateprotectionandsupport?In the case of India,I hypothesisethatthe motivesof elite Indianconsumers ofartisanalcrafts can be linked to earlier nationalistprojectsof identityformation.For instance, in the early partof the twentiethcentury, he Bengal School of Artis a case in point.This was a moderniststyle of artthat was distinctivefrom bothtraditional Indian painting and Western modernism. The artists, most notablyNandalalBose, Abanindranath agoreand JaminiRoy, were seekingnew sourcesof modernityand drew their nspiration rom folk tales andvillage arts andcrafts,and they specialised in re-interpretingIndian myths often in miniature form,employing bright, earthy and naturalcolours. They blended classical, folk andmodern styles to produce an artistic form that would represent an authenticIndian nationalist identity. For instance, Nandalal Bose's subject matter oftendepictedthe spectacleof Indianpopularculture-images of village artisansandworkers and domestic life.40 These days too, there are similarities with theresurrectionandpopularityof 'native', 'traditional'or 'authentic'Indianartsandcrafts, where we witness the Indian urban elite and diasporic community ofprofessional migrants seeking to interrogate and reconstruct their identities,through iterature, ilm andart, n a fragmentedandglobalisingworld.4 yotindraJain arguesthata greatdivide now exists in India between the mainstreameliteartists who work in studios and sell through organised galleries and the'everyday'artisansandcraftspeople.This lattergroup:

mainly hriveon the newurban atronage hichhas arisenas a resultof protectionandpatronizingdevelopmental ndeavours n the partof the government.Thegovernmentncourageshesewitha view to keepinghe artisanself-employedndto earningprecious oreignexchangeby exportingmanufacturedraft products.Once it is established hat the 'crafts' areprimarily commercial'rather han'cultural' n nature, heir treatment nvolves differentstrategies,one of whichmustbe that he criteria ordesignandaesthetics reorientedo commerce-relateddevelopment.42

Jain goes on to write that a schism evolves wherein tribal and village artisticproducts are rarely considered part of contemporary 'art'. Rather, the 'art' ofrural artisans, or more correctly 'artists', is predominantly mass produced,commerciallydriven'handicrafts'.Unlike state-supported ystems, the situation at the non-governmentalevel issomewhat different. While the supportof various NGOS, the establishment ofartisan co-operatives, and the emergence of various fair trade schemes arewelcome, there remains a sense of hopelessness as artisansemployed by thesevariousNGOShave to compete in a global market.For example, a 1997 reportby456


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GLOBALISATIONND ARTISANLABOUR N THETHIRDWORLDthe United Nations DevelopmentFund for Women (uNIEM) on women artisansin Indiadescribesthe rise of artisansweatshopswhereNGO staff on good salaries,with leave and otherjob benefits, supervisethe work of women who are barleystruggling to survive on a subsistence income. In one case, orders for Belgianlace were rejected on the groundsof poor quality. The income from sales, morethan 10 times the cost of lace manufacture,s largely sharedby the charityandthe NGO thatbuys it, with only a subsistence evel of wages tricklingdown to theartisans. The various fair tradebodies, with their focus on a fair price, are alsocriticised for failing to ensure that the artisansare accordedjust and reasonablewages and suitable employment conditions and rights.43Moreover, the ficklenature of the global marketplacemeans that various crafts come in and out offashion, leading to problemsof dwindlingmarketsandover-supply.

Another way in which artisan labour has the potential to survive, with bothgovernmentandNGO assistance, s through he impositionof intellectualpropertyrights.The globalisationof productionhas given rise to severalwell knowncasesof copyrightandpatentviolations in relationto medicines, music and literature.However,one of the key problemsthatemergesis that artisanalcraftsand skillsareshared,owned andpractisedby a communityand so stand n starkcontrast othe Western view of knowledge as a commodity owned by an individualor anincorporatedcompany. Furthermore,what happens when anothermarginalisedgroup uses similar patternsor crafts to enter the marketplace?Moreover, can acommunity or group hold onto its intellectual propertywhen businesses fromanothercountrydecideto use the samepatternsanddesigns?4Skillstrainingof artisan abourers

Is there a need, or indeedadvantage, or specific skills trainingandeducationforartisans?Should the skills of 'theartisansbe formalisedand would any benefit bederived if this were to happen? In the area of skills training and the socialuplift of artisancommunities,the majorityof research undertakenpoints to theadvantagesof formingartisanco-operativeswhich aremanagedby, or in linkagewith, fair trade organisations.45 This is despite the various criticisms of theseorganisationsoutlined n previoussections. Oneparticular roupthathas recentlybeen formed to assist and train various artisancommunities from around theglobe is the 'Artisan Enterprise Network' (AEN). As they point out in theirpublicity, they have a goal of 'empoweringowners of micro and small businessesto be entrepreneursn the global marketplace'. The AEN was established afterbeing one of 44 winners of a World Bank competition for innovative ideas toreduce world poverty and spur development. Essentially, the AEN sets out toestablish and ferment an entrepreneurial pirit and organisation among artisancommunities. Included in the AEN is an artisan/entrepreneur urriculum thatteaches smallbusiness planningand entrepreneurialkills.'Many other organisationsprovide assistance and trainingfor artisans. At theinternationalgovernmental level, SEED (Boosting Employment Through SmallEnterprisE Development) is a programme of the International LabourOrganisation Io) to capitaliseon the ILo's work in supportingmicro- andsmall-scale enterprises. For example, in Mali the ILO assisted in establishing the

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TIMOTHY SCRASENational Federation of Artisans, which has over 20 000 members and assiststhese workers in having a representativevoice in governmentaffairs. Moreover,the ILo is developing a range of guidelines, manuals and training programmesfor capacity building among marginal working communities like artisans andhandicraftworkers.At the non-profit evel, The Crafts Center is an organisationthat connects artisans o potentialbuyers and assistance organisations ike micro-credit agencies and various NGOS. It also educates and trains artisans and theirdevelopmentpartnersabout productquality, sound business practices and markettrends, and 'best practice' in production and marketing, and raises generalconsumer interest in and appreciationof handicrafts.47 or some organisations,implementing a Western, globalised management and business trainingprogrammewill enable the non-Westernartisan o survive by becoming a small,entrepreneurial nd profitable business. For others, it is by offering a range ofcredit and business plans. Yet, there remains in the world of private productionthe inherent problems of fluctuating market demand, intense local and globalcompetition, lack of social power and hence a lack of effective bargaining andnegotiating skills, and a general reduction n secure and meaningful employmentonce the skills of the artisan become commercialised. There are all too manycases in the developedworld of small enterprises ailing within their firstyear ofoperationto graft the Western model of entreprenuerialism nd small businessdevelopmentonto the communitiesof marginalisedThirdWorldworkers.

Concluding ommentsIn Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, Mike Featherstone writes aboutshopping as a symbolic and self-validating experience-where the pleasure ofshopping is often far greater than the pleasure derived from the good that ispurchased.48We may be able to extend this argument urther.That is to say, in theact of purchasing an artisanal commodity, the Western consumer is at oncebuying the experience of authenticity and traditionalism in a way that sym-bolically connects the commodity back to the producer.This is reinforcedby adirectexperienceof buyingfrom the producer,as in a touristencounter,or from afair trade shop or through a catalogue, where the details of the craft and theproducers hemselves areprovided.49Ayami Nakatani,in a recent conferencepaper,recountsthe tales of Japanesemiddle class consumers, and the various women's' magazines aimed at thismarket,which personalisethe consumptionof craftgoods. She explains:

The Japanese consumers, predominantly women, crave for the stories and 'bio-graphical' details about these goods. Responding to those needs, the magazinearticlesandimportdealersprovidesome ideas about the context of production; heirdiscourse tends to createa highly romanticized,and static view of local producers.On the partof the purchasers, hey turn the goods into personalizedpossessions anddisplaythemin an effortto expresstheir ndividuality.50Thus, in a hyperreal world of mass, packaged consumption, global tele-communicationsand virtualrelationships, hepurchaseof an artisancraftmay actto temporarilyanchor he consumer n a real world of labourproduction.5'458


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GLOBALISATIONND ARTISANLABOUR N THETHIRDWORLDYet, despite the urge to speak of the caged-up, 'postmodern consumer', inmany ways, the daily life and struggle of Third World artisans have changedlittle over the past few decades. This is the life of precarious production-amaginalised existence determinedby the ever-changingdesires of a whimsicalglobal consumer market. Touristsmay come and go, wars and civil disruptionmay occur, and various raw materials may become too expensive or disappearforever.Producing or the global market s thus fraughtwith an arrayof perils.Tobe an artisan s thus a contingentand relative experience,wherebythe majorityofartisans luctuatebetween workand unemployment, ncome andpoverty.Just as the life of the artisan s precarious,so too is the craft itself. The global-isation of artisanalcrafts has led to the separationof the craft from the actualartisan. For example, various factories in China now mass produce and market

'sari' cloth, based on Indian designs, which finds it way into Western super-marketsanddiscountfabric stores, as tablecloths, placematsand bed linen. Thusit may be now possible to speak of the 'virtual artisan',meaning that the craftitself survivesin a hybridform that may or may not be producedby the originalworkers. Coupled with this is the concomitant emergence of artisanalor craft'bricolage', whereby the artisanalproductbecomes an assemblage of popularpatternsanddesigns, often used out of context,andwith the finishedgood a mereresemblanceof its formerself.Finally, it is now commonplace within postcolonial theory to write andresearch on the complex phenomenon of globalised, hybridised identities, aspostcolonial migrants fluctuate between their 'traditional' and 'fixed'cultural identities and their 'new' identities which form after migration.52 nmany respects the contemporaryartisantoo has a hybrid identity: some retaintraditionalism in their craft while simultaneously producing for a globalconsumer or local tourist market. Moreover, the vestiges of the craft itselfsurvive, despite its material transference from design to artefact to mass-producedcommodity.Eitherway, the identityof the artisan s imbuedin the craftpiece itself-whether it is on the design of the embroidery, he shape of the pot,the style of weaving, or the colours and patternsof the cloth. In other words,unlike the displacedor marginalisedwage worker,artisancraftscarrywith thema piece of the identity of the makersthemselves and so circulate in the globalconsumer markets of departmentstores, fair trade shops or local bazaars andmarkets.Thus, despite the precariousand fragile nature of artisanproduction,theircraftsand skills survive.

NotesThis article s a substantiallyevisedversionof two previouslypresented apers.The firstwas presentedin aninternational orkshop co-convenedon 'AsianArtisansandSmallScaleProducersn the GlobalEconomy:Trends,Issues andProblemsn the New Millennium'held at the Internationalnstitute orAsianStudies IIAS), Universityof Amsterdamranch, January 002.The secondwaspresented tthefifth Asia PacificSociologicalAssociationConference-'Asia PacificSocieties:Contrasts,ChallengesandCrises',4-7 July2002,QueenslandUniversity f Technology,Brisbane.I S Seth,'Towards volunteermovement f artisan upport',CraftNews,6 (1), 1995,pp 1,3-4.

2 For instance, n the Indiancontext,this is illuminatedmostrecently n R Ganguly-Scrase,GlobalIssues/LocalContexts:TheRabiDas of Bengal,New Delhi:OrientLongman, 001.459


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TIMOTHY SCRASESee, for example, K Anderson (ed), New Silk Roads: East Asia and World TextileMarkets,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1992;C Balkwelland KGDickerson, Apparelproductionin the Caribbean: classic case of the new international ivision of labour',Clothingand TextilesResearchJournal,12 (3), 1994, pp 6-15; andJ Nash(ed), Crafts n the WorldMarket,Albany,NJ:StateUniversity f New YorkPress,1993.Although hereare,at times and n certain ontexts, ubtledifferences etween heterms artisan' nd'craft'(ie wherean artisanmaybe seen as a skilled workerand a craft workermaybe seen to beengagedin a hobby),nevertheless use these wordsinterchangeablyhroughouthe paperas thesubtleties refartoo indistinguishablen the context hatI usethem n this article.VA Dickie & G Frank, 'Artisanoccupations n the global economy:a conceptual framework',Journalof Occupational cience:Australia, (2), 1996,pp45-55.

6 J Nash, 'Introduction:raditional rts andchangingmarketsn MiddleAmerica', n Nash, Crafts nthe World Market, pp 1-3.JC Scott, Weaponsof the Weak:EverydayFormsof PeasantResistance,New Haven,CT: YaleUniversityPress, 1985.8 See, for example,various contributionsn Nash, Crafts n the WorldMarket.See also C Steiner,

AfricanArt in Transit,Cambridge: ambridgeUniversityPress, 1994;K Tice,KunaCrafts,Genderand theGlobalEconomy,Austin,TX;University f TexasPress,1995.S Kathuria,Indian raftexports ortheglobalmarket',n S Kathuria, Miralao& R Joseph,ArtisanIndustries n Asia: Four Case Studies,Ottawa: nternational evelopmentResearchCentre, 1988,p21.M Chibnick, The evolution of marketniches in Oaxacanwoodcarving',Ethnology,39 (3), 2000,pp 225-242; andWW Wood, 'Flexibleproduction,householdsand fieldwork:multisitedZapotecweavers n the era of late capitalism',Ethnology, 9 (2), 2000, pp 133-148.Described n K Buchanan, Centerandperiphery:eflectionson the irrelevance f a billionhumanbeings',MonthlyReview,37 (3), 1985,pp 86-97.12 R Colloredo-Mansfield,An ethnography f neoliberalism:understanding ompetition n artisaneconomies',CurrentAnthropology,3 (1), 2002, p 114.3 T Korovkin, 'Commodityproductionand ethnic culture:Otavalo,NorthernEcuador',EconomicDevelopmentnd CulturalChange,47 (1), 1998,p 126.4 C Wilkinson-Weber, Skill, dependencyand differentiation: rtisansand agentsin the Lucknowembroideryndustry',Ethnology, 6 (1), 1997, pp49-65.5 See L Kaino (ed), TheNecessity of Craft: Developmentand Women'sCraftPractices in theAsian-PacificRegion,Nedlands:University f WesternAustralian ress, 1995;A Nakatani, 'Eatingthreads : rocadesas cashcropforweavingmothersanddaughtersn Bali', in R Rubenstein& LHConnor eds), StayingLocalin the GlobalVillage,Honolulu,HI:Universityof Hawai'iPress, 1999,pp 203-229;andCWilkinson-Weber,Skill,dependency nddifferentiation'.

16 Kaino,TheNecessityof Craft,pp 9-11.17 AGGuillermo, Weaving:women'sartandpower', n ibid,pp35-56.18 Kathuria tal,Artisan ndustriesn Asia.19 V Miralao,Labour onditions n thePhilippine raft ndustries',n ibid,pp 30-56.20 D Imhoff, Artisansn theglobalbazaar',WholeEarth,Fall, 1998,pp76-81.21 For a detailedoverviewand critical ummary f recentresearch n this theme,see J Brohmen, Newdirections n tourismfor ThirdWorlddevelopment',Annalsof TourismResearch,23 (1), 1996,

pp48-70.22 See, forexample,KHelu-Thaman,Beyondhula,hotels,andhandicrafts: Pacific slander'sperspec-tive of tourismdevelopment',Contemporaryacific,5 (1), 1993,pp 104-111.23 D Imhoff, Artisansntheglobalbazaar', p76-8 1.24 Nash, Craftsn the WorldMarket.25 K Grimes & B Milgram(eds),Artisansand Cooperatives:DevelopingAlternativeTrade or theGlobalEconomy,Tuscan:The Universityof ArizonaPress, 2000; W Morris,HandmadeMoney:LatinAmericanArtisans ntheMarketplace,Washington:Organizationf American tates,1996.26 K Kusakabe, 'Cooperationand competitionacross bordermarkets:changes in the definition ofwomen's weaving activity in Lao-Thai borderlands',paper presented at the 6th Conference ofWomenn Asia, Canberra, ustralia,001.27 R Rutten, Howcraftworkersnd smallsubcontractors ay profit rom he worldmarket: Philippinecase', paperpresentedat a workshopon 'Asian Artisansand Small Scale Producers n the GlobalEconomy:Trends, ssues and Problems n the New Millennium', iAs, Universityof Amsterdam,January 002.28 P Bourdieu,Distinction:A Social Critiqueof theJudgement f Taste,London:Routledge,1984. Inthis importantstudy Bourdieuprovidesa detailedanalysis of the process of class and culturalreconfigurationnFrance,wherebya subtle,butnevertheless istinct,differentiationmergesbetween460


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GLOBALISATION ND ARTISANLABOUR N THETHIRDWORLDthe variousclass factionsand their culturalpracticesand their mobilisation f cultural esources,or'cultural apital'.

29 A Nakatani, 'Exoticismand nostalgia: consumingSoutheast Asian handicraftsn Japan', paperpresented t the 3rdEUROSEASConference,London,6-8 September 001, p 13. In this paperNakatanianalyses he Japanese lite women's obsession (or 'craze') for consuminghand-wovenextiles andothercraftgoods fromAsia.30 See Ganguly-Scrase, 001, GlobalIssues/LocalContexts.31 EA Davis, 'Metamorphosisn the culturemarketof Niger', AmericanAnthropologist,01 (3), 1999,pp 498-499.32 This is an areaof researchhatI have recentlycommenced, xploring hese questionsn focus groupdiscussionswith middle class Indianconsumers n New Delhi. I will return o this questionbelow,where I briefly ookat the motivations f elite Indian onsumers nd he role ofthe state.33 Forinstance, ordetailed inks, catalogues,detailsaboutretailers ndproducers, tc, see http://www.fairtradefederation.com.Ten housand illages' (http://www.villages.ca)s another mportantwebsitefor thepromotion ndmarketing f ThirdWorldhandicraftsn NorthAmerica.34 C Hendrickson,SellingGuatemala:Mayaexportproducts n US mail-order atalogues', n D Howes

(ed),Cross-culturalConsumption: lobalMarkets,LocalRealities,London:Routledge,1996, p 118,emphasis n the original.35 Ibid,pp 118-119.36 J Johnson, 'Consuming global justice: fair trade shopping and alternative development', in JGoodman ed), Protestand Globalisation:Prospects or Transnational olidarity, Sydney: PlutoPress,2002, p 39.37 Ibid,p 55.38 L Stephen, Weavingn thefast lane:class,ethnicityandgender n Zapoteccraftcommercialization',inNash, Craftsn the WorldMarket, p 25-57.39 S Suratman, 'Weaving development trategy:ottage ndustriesn thePhilippines', ojourn,6 (2),1991, pp263-289.40 For a detaileddiscussion, see T Guha-Thakurta,TheMaking of New 'Indian'Art, Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1992.41 A Appadurai,ModernityAt Large:TheCulturalDimensionsof Globalization,Minneapolis,MN:

University f MinnesotaPress, 1996.42 JJain, Artandartisans:ribaland olk art nIndia', n Kaino,TheNecessityof Craft,p 29.43 UNIFEM,'Socialsecurity or artisans n the voluntary ector:are humanrightsbeing denied?',NewDelhi, 1997.4 M Riley & K Moran, Protectingndigenous ntellectualproperty ights: ools that work', CulturalSurvivalQuarterly, 44, 2001,athttp://www.cs.org/publications/CSQ/244/introduction.htm,ccessed1 September 002.45 See Grimes&Milgram,AfricansandCooperatives.

AEN (ArtisanEnterpriseNetwork);nformationbout heircurriculum nd otherdetailsfoundattheirwebsite:http://www.artisanenterprisenetwork.org,ccessed20 September 002.47 http://www.craftscenter.org,ccessed 20 September 002. It appearshat this centrehas linkagestotheAEN.48 MFeatherstone, onsumerCulture ndPostmodernism,ondon:Sage,1991.49 See Hendrickson,SellingGuatemala'.30 A Nakatani,Exoticismandnostalgia',p 13.51 For excellentsummaries ndanalysesof the literature,heoriesandcomplexitiesof consumption,eeB Fine & E Leopold,The Worldof Consumption,London:Routledge,1993; andD Miller (ed),Acknowledging onsumption,ondon:Routledge,1995.32 See, for example,S Hall, 'Thequestionof culturaldentity', n S Hall,D Held & T McGrew eds),Modernitynd itsFutures,Cambridge: olityPress, 1992, pp273-325.

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Globalisation and Artisan Labour in the Third World

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