Fashioning frontiers in artisanal trade: social entrepreneurship and textile production in the Philippine Cordillera

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the northern upland Philippines, a new group of social entrepreneurs are working with Cordillera weavers to develop innovatively designed but indigenously inspired textiles that respond to the global market for artisanal goods. These social entrepreneurs champion business transparency, quality production, ongoing producer–buyer relationships and community welfare. This article investigates these frontier enterprises in Ifugao and Benguet provinces. I argue that to understand the nuanced dynamics of such contemporary textile production and trade means exploring how artisans and entrepreneurs operationalize work opportunities and negotiate market precarity, given shifts in raw material availability, labour conditions, market demand and the material representation of local cultural identity. I suggest that these interdependent forces keep entrepreneurs and artisans in a reciprocal relationship of trust – but one that experiences periodic ruptures, such as when financial need sees artisans sell to one entrepreneur goods promised to another. To meet changing consumer tastes, artisans and entrepreneurs also refashion any concept of a static ‘authenticity’ by incorporating textile designs that speak both of modernity and local indigenous identity. The cultural turn privileging ethical consumption thus suggests these social initiatives can resolve push-pull tensions to yield an industry for, and more responsive to, artisans’ and consumers’ needs.