Craft Trade Research Articles

Preparing England's further education system for zero-carbon construction skills

Skills issues for craft trades in building decarbonisation often focus on improving technical knowledge but known problems of quality assurance in construction also include ‘soft’ employability skills and the application of sustainability values in practice. New course content is a necessary but not sufficient component of changing practice. The real demand for skills and actual use of skills in the workplace is just as important as new skills supply. A deliberative workshop with 40 expert stakeholders investigated the preparedness of the education and training system for zero-carbon construction skills. Several challenges emerge from this research. The market context for jobs and skills training shows how the over-narrow focus on new courses leads to waste and failures. Policy has an important role to play in developing minimum vocational standards through licensing, allied to consistent, long-term industrial strategy. The low prestige of further education and vocational training hinders real skills development and recruitment and retention of the workforce. Colleges operate with limited resources and competing priorities, creating real constraints on important activities like teacher training. Short courses and continuing professional development have no common standards or link with initial education and training, leading to piecemeal learning of unknown quality.

Gender-based stereotyping in the Spanish artisan sector

Throughout history, certain stereotypes associated with the idea of feminine and masculine have been consolidated and maintained, framed within a binary sex/gender system. With the passage of time and the inclusion of women in the workplace, such stereotypes have been extrapolated to the latter, resulting in inequalities in access to certain positions and professional development. Although significant progress has been made in workplace equality, some professions continue to be characterized by a particular polarization, and within the artisan sector, this is reflected in specific trades. In this sense, this research aims to determine whether there are gender stereotypes in the Spanish artisan sector, the degree of presence of men and women in the various craft trades, and what elements facilitate this polarization. A survey of 547 craftspeople, and a review of the statistical data on the working population in Spain for the year 2020, reveals a perpetuation of gender segregation depending on the craft trade, along with an ageing sector, and continued stereotyping in the generational replacement in the Spanish craft sector.

The queens’ dressmakers: women’s work and the clothing trades in late seventeenth-century London

ABSTRACT Increased patterns of consumption during the late seventeenth century afforded new opportunities in the fashion trades for women, establishing mantua-making as an enduring form of female employment. The rise of these women has not been well documented in England or outside of the guilds, organisations that traditionally sought to marginalise the place of women in the craft trades. This article utilises verb and noun methodologies, alongside qualitative and quantitative analyses, to examine the household accounts of Queens Catherine of Braganza and Mary II dating from 1684–94. These accounts demonstrate that women’s skilled work in an essential sector of pre-industrial labour was often characterised by ambiguity. Occupational titles, when given, often undersold the labour performed by women at this crucial time in a fast-evolving marketplace, where they competed with male tailors for patronage and favour. Early English dressmakers relied on their knowledge and training in both seamstressing and tailoring, their associations with new, fashionable and highly desirable French couturières and forms of female social capital for success. Significantly, the evidence found in their bills offers new ways of reconstructing women’s work tasks, skills and recompense, challenging previously held assumptions about women’s expertise during the early modern period.

Lina Bo Bardi’s School of Craft and Industrial Art and the Bauhaus legacy

In the article-manifesto ‘Industrial Art’, the Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi published her idea for a Museum of Craft and Industrial Art that should be carried together with a School of Industrial Art, envisaging the emergence of a Brazilian industry of crafts from popular roots. The architect conceived this art and industrial design school in a complex process of reception and critique of the Bauhaus myth. However, in contrast to the industrial-based conception of the Bauhaus, the Museum-School was conceived with the aims of agency, tying its premises to local needs and popular culture. These questions were present in the founding manifesto of the Bauhaus in Weimar, when Walter Gropius called on architects, sculptors, and painters to return to craftsmanship and remove the arrogant barrier that separated the work of the artist from that of the craftsperson. The paper analyses how Lina Bo Bardi's conception of an industrial design school in Brazil sought to overcome the polarisations between the fine arts and craft trades, reversing the prominence of an erudite culture that have subjugated the local and popular production. These revelations are further linked to questions of the role of local and popular production in relation to the foundational concepts of the Bauhaus School and the grassroots movements for social-political and cultural emancipation in the Brazilian Northeast region.

Implementing and Monitoring Circular Business Models: An Analysis of Italian SMEs

The transition from a linear to a circular economy (CE) is at the center of the debate among institutions, enterprises, practitioners, and scholars. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with their high presence in the business environment, play a pivotal role in the successful implementation of CE principles. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the state of the CE among Italian SMEs, considering both their different sizes and sectors. This study investigates CE knowledge and application, strategic relevance, benefits from and barriers to the transition towards circular business models, and the use of CE-related performance indicators in management control and external reporting. Through an online survey carried out in cooperation with the Italian Confederation of Craft Trades and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CNA), we collected primary data from 623 respondents. Findings revealed the existence of cultural, technological, market and financial barriers, which have hampered the adoption of circular practices among Italian SMEs. Poor understanding of CE potential, combined with difficulty in raising public and private funds to finance the transition from linear to circular, are the greatest problems. To overcome such issues, we recommend serious intervention by public institutions, trade and consumer associations, and the higher education system to develop a climate more favorable to the CE.

The Rise or Decline of Craft Trades? Evidence from Czech Republic and Poland

Entrepreneurial activity in the field of craft professions is an integral part of national economies. The aim of the authors is to prepare an overview article, which would simultaneously compare selected business activities in the Czech Republic and Poland in the field of craft trades with an emphasis on young people and their employability in the labour market. In line with the aim of the article, the authors identified four research questions, which they answered based on the analysis of secondary data. They drew data from databases of statistical offices, ministries and associations. Data were processed using a descriptive statistics apparatus. In the Czech Republic, interest in the study of crafts has stagnated for a long time. In recent years, the number of graduates of craft apprenticeships has been growing. Crafts in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering are preferred, e.g. car mechanic, repairman, mechanical locksmith, electrician. Decrease in the number of graduates is recorded in the food and most construction professions. After finishing the apprenticeship, graduates often leave their field. In Poland, most companies operate in the field of trade and repair of motor vehicles. Measured by the number of graduates, the predominant field is the machinery industry, wellness professions and professions in the food industry. The interest among young people in the studied craft trades is declining in most fields, the field of metal machining shows a growing trend. It is also necessary to confirm the craftsman's expertise with a master craftsman’s certification. It is desirable to expand the possibilities of educating pupils and students in a real work environment. It is important that mutual communication between the worlds of practice and education is functional and effective.

The vulnerability of European regional labour markets to job automation: the role of agglomeration externalities

ABSTRACT Automation is expected to have strong implications for labour-saving technologies. We calculate the proportion of jobs at high risk of automation across European regions using data from the 2018 Labour Force Survey (LFS). We examine the relationship between regional vulnerability to job automation, specialization, related (and unrelated) variety and agglomeration. The results indicate that regions at low vulnerability to job automation benefit from unrelated variety and high population density. Regions with higher proportions of clerical support workers, craft and related trade workers, and plant and machine operators and assemblers are likely to face greater disruption.

E-Marketplace as a Tool for the Revitalization of Portuguese Craft Industry: The Design Process in the Development of an Online Platform

The craft trade in Portugal faces challenges that compromise its productive and economic sustainability and may result in the disappearance of millenary techniques, traditions, and industrial practices of high symbolic and historical value. The growing incompatibility of these traditional activities with digital technologies, the lack of resources, and a growing age gap are among the main problems identified. This situation made worse by various restrictions pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic points towards the possibility of extinction of this type of manual arts. The goal of this research is to demonstrate how the design process of an e-marketplace platform, throughout its different phases, may contribute to the revitalization of traditional industries. The methodologies adopted in the framework consisted in the study of UX and UI best design practices, including wireframe design, user flows, definition of personas, development of prototypes, and style guides. The results of the conducted usability tests to the prototype allowed a gradual improvement of the solution, culminating in the confirmation of its effectiveness. The study concluded that digital technology, namely a designed e-marketplace solution, could potentially bring buyers and sellers closer together, thus being a tool with high potential for the dissemination and sustainability of the craft industry.

ЗБРОЯРСЬКА СПРАВА ЛІВОБЕРЕЖНОЇ УКРАЇНИ КІНЦЯ XVII – ПОЧАТКУ XVIII СТОЛІТЬ

None of the sides of a productive culture of a society so reflects the general state of that society and the level of its development as the evolution of weapons. For centuries, it has been the development of arms that has been one of the main drivers of state development. The strength, power, security and territorial integrity of the country are based on its defense capability. The beginning of the revolution of the Ukrainian people in the middle of the seventeenth century under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnitsky stimulated the development of military affairs in the state, and the ideological and political climate and Moscow expansion forced the hetmans of Ukraine Demyan Ignatovich, Ivan Samoilovych and Ivan Mazepov to become state. Since the history of production is the history of society, exploring the various stages of the development of craft is an extremely important matter. Historical study of craft centers in the territory of the Hetmanate in the XVII-XVIII centuries. was started in the XIX century. A. Shafonsky, M. Domontovich, O. Lazarevsky, V. Modzalevsky and O. Rusov. In the twentieth century. The craft trades of that period were studied by researchers O. Kompan, V. Bondarchyk, P. Fedorenko and others. Among the modern scientists on this subject, the intelligence of D. Toichkin, S. Malchenko V. Vechersky, Y. Redko, V. Sergiychuk deserve attention, which to some extent reveal the issues of the organization of the work of masters-gunsmiths, their cells in the territory of the Left-Bank Ukraine of that period. Many valuable material for the study of the development and organization of weapons crafts provide accounting sources and administrative documentation of the local government and the hetman administration, descriptions of the hetman's property. The article deals with the weapons handicrafts of the inhabitants of the Left-Bank Ukraine. The author makes attempts to locate gunpoint centers, to disclose the economic aspects of the activities of gunsmiths, and to recreate the specifics of their work.

Sektorale und berufsspezifische Ausbildungsstrategien und Übergangsmuster nach der dualen Ausbildung

Abstract Based on the Integrated Employment Biographies data (IEB) of the Institute for Employment Research, the study compares the transition patterns after completion of vocational training in craft trades and in other sectors of economic activity. According to Soskice (1994) and Steedman (1993), dual training in the craft sector exhibits some distinctive features that can be expected to increase the risk of non-smooth transitions and to inhibit labor market integration of its apprentices. The analysis shows that currently almost all apprentices manage to enter regular employment within one year after graduation. However, apprenticeship graduates from craft trades are more likely to be affected by temporary unemployment. Additionally, the wage disadvantages associated with a job change are significantly higher in craft trades than in other occupations. Further analysis reveals that these average effects mask large differences at the occupational level. We conclude, that future research should draw more attention to transition risks on occupational rather than on sectoral level.

Comparative assessment of shift in hearing threshold among handicraft operatives in India

This case-control exploratory study is first of its kind to assess the noise exposure and loss in hearing threshold (HT) due to the occupational use of hand tools used for handicraft work. Sixty male participants involved in different crafts trade and a reference group of 50 office workers were selected. The sound pressure levels under actual work conditions were measured as per the method outlined in IS 7194:1994. The mean equivalent sound pressure level was quite high (96.37 dB(A)), exceeding the exposure limit of 90 dB(A). Audiometric tests were conducted to compare the HT between both the groups. In agreement with dose consumed, the exposed workers exhibit moderate hearing impairment in the frequency range of 1500–6000 Hz. The association of HT at different frequencies among occupation were detected using post-hoc multiple comparisons. 95% of the workers showed hearing handicap at some level and noise-induced hearing loss increases with higher age and experience. Interventions in the hand tools, implementation of hearing conservation programmes and practice of personal protective equipments have been suggested.Practitioner Summary: As the primary outcomes, comparative assessment of the shift in hearing threshold was analyzed in anticipation to develop a better work system. Results from the study report that the sound pressure level was fairly high and 95% of the handicraft operatives showed hearing handicap at some level.

CARACTERIZACIÓN SOCIAL Y ECONÓMICA DEL OFICIO ARTESANAL ZENÚ Y CARACTERIZACIÓN AGRONÓMICA DE BANCOS DE GERMOPLASMA DE CAÑA FLECHA EN EL DEPARTAMENTO DE ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA

ResumenLa artesanía Zenú, cuya pieza icónica es el Sombrero Vueltiao, es un oficio ancestral derivado de la caña flecha Gynerium sagittatum, planta asociada a fuentes hídricas y a diversidad de especies tintóreas que sirven para dar color a sus artículos. Esta actividad (la artesanía) necesita fortalecerse en Antioquia debido a que la variedad criolla; utilizada en la artesanía denominada “fina”, planta que domesticaron en sus antiguos territorios (Córdoba y Sucre) no se encontraba en Antioquia. Pero el desplazamiento por la violencia y la búsqueda de tierras, hizo que los zenúes llegaran a este territorio donde no encontraron las condiciones apropiadas de la relación co-evolutiva que se ha dado entre la planta, el oficio y su identidad, esto representa la cuenta regresiva de su cultura en la región. La caña flecha más que una planta es base de materias primas para el oficio artesanal. La artesanía Zenú es un esfuerzo por tener mejores alternativas económicas y por seguir siendo zenúes. Ante esta problemática, el Jardín Botánico de Medellín estableció con tres comunidades zenúes unos Bancos de Germoplasma con caña flecha en campo (BGC) a partir de rizomas de la variedad criolla, como material de propagación para establecer cultivos como fuente de materia prima para la elaboración de la artesanía, que son la base de desarrollo del proyecto del cual, en esta publicación se presentan los resultados de las fases iniciales. Hoy, el pueblo Zenú sufre muchas carencias en materia de salud, agua, saneamiento básico, alternativas laborales e incluso alimento en contextos ecológicamente valiosos y amenazados por la minería y cultivos ilícitos. La intención de las caracterizaciones que se presentan aquí es para abordar y empezar precisamente por medio del oficio artesanal a construir soluciones a problemas sociales y ambientales que serán detallados en el contenido de este texto.Palabras claves: Etnia Zenú, Plantas tintóreas, Agroambiental.

The sound of church bells: Tracking down the secret of a traditional arts and crafts trade

The sound of church bells is part of most people's everyday life and can easily be examined with smartphones. Similar to other experiments of this column, we use a suitable iOS app. The underlying physical theory of church bells proves to be difficult. A reliable prediction of their natural frequencies based on their exact dimensions is only possible using the finite element method. If you ask bell founders how they calculate the rib of a bell (half longitudinal section of a bell, which completely determines the acoustic properties, Fig. 1) in order to get a church bell with the desired frequency spectrum, you will certainly not get an answer: the art of bell casting is based on centuries of experience and knowledge of the rib structure is only shared with direct descendants. We want to have a closer look at these well-guarded secrets, knowing full well that we cannot fully unravel them. This article presents simple mathematical models and a comparison with a data set of almost 700 bells.

Russian Folk Art

Russian Folk Art. By Alison Hilton. ( Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. Pp. xiii + 356, glossary, notes, bibliography, index, photographs.)Alison Hilton's Russian Folk Art is a re-issue of her earlier work. It includes a new preface, but this new edition lacks the striking color pictures of the first edition published in 1995. The book is comprised of 18 chapters divided into 4 sections: (1) The Arts in Peasant Life, (2) Materials and Forms, (3) Designs and Their Meanings, (4) Preservation and Revival of Russian Folk Art. Hilton's monograph opens with a consideration of the role of folk within the context of Russian towns and villages, followed by an examination of the relationships between styles and the physical characteristics of folk art (p. xvii). The author then examines the significance of the images used in the in various contexts and historical periods. She completes her study with a discussion of the folk revival and preservation movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Due to Soviet-era limitations on foreign researchers, she was prevented from participating in fieldwork. Consequently, her research is based on museum collections and on the scholarship of and discussions with (Soviet) Russian scholars of folk and material culture since the 1980s.Hilton begins with an overview of the nature of folk art. She emphasizes the importance of, in the words of Arkhip Ershov, a maker of distaffs from Semenovo, the thread of tradition (p. 4). This section introduces the reader to the complexity of folk in the Russian context, laying out the dilemmas for its study: the intersection of village and urban (including church and court as well as the craft trade) ; its interaction with historical events; and the origins of its motifs and techniques, whether Slavic or borrowed from other cultures present on the Russian territory. This section includes an overview of village life, house design and decoration, and toolmaking, including a thorough discussion of the decoration. It also includes a chapter on regional folk specialization and particularly renowned folk artists. Hilton focuses on two artists, a distaff maker and a birch-bark carver, to demonstrate the continual process of give and take between local customs and external influences (p. 56). The second section expands on these topics through a detailed study of the motifs and styles of, in turn, wood carving, painting on wood, textile arts and costume, urban folk art, and specialized crafts associated with particular regions, such as bone carving, metalworking, lubki (block printing on paper for a mass audience using folk motifs), lacquer, pottery, and toys. As an historian, she is particularly astute at outlining the visual and aesthetic characteristics of the folk arts and at making parallels between different folk traditions. For example, she examines how carving is related to textile art, and she studies how special designs on ritual breads are also connected to similar patterns in carving and embroidery. This section also outlines the effect of mass production and industrialization on folk art, in particular, on textiles as well as on wood carving, since the tools required to spin and weave have become obsolete. …

Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician’s Craft

Book Review| July 01 2014 Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician’s Craft Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician’s Craft. By Graham M. Jones. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Pp xvii + 289, list of illustrations, preface and acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, index.). Spencer Orey Spencer Orey Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of American Folklore (2014) 127 (505): 331–333. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.127.505.0331 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Spencer Orey; Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician’s Craft. Journal of American Folklore 1 January 2014; 127 (505): 331–333. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.127.505.0331 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of American Folklore Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2014 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Beginings of Skilled Trade Enterprise in the Czech Lands

Development of free enterprise in the middle of the 19th century, which was based on capital relations in the sphere of both production and market, was incompatible with the old system of guild craft and its complicated regulations. The Law of the Trade Code from 1859 abolished all measures that had been in effect until then and introduced trade freedom within the new economic policy and the needs of modern enterprise. According to the law, all citizens had theoretically the access to all craft trades after paying the set taxes - this resulted in a huge wave of trades being set up. Freedom of production as well as sales was proclaimed. Commercial Code from 1862, by which the absolute free competitiveness in business ventures had been legalized, became an organic amendment to the Trade Code from 1859. The article deals with the concepts of trade, a practice of its gaining or losing, it pays attention to a number of amendments. Trade legislation was connected with commercial activity and its conditions. An important role in the support of commercial activities was played by trade and commercial associations - the article describes their long history from their formation in 1850 up to their dissolution in 1948. Working of firms in the branch of industry, commerce and craft trades was strongly influenced by licensing authorities that directly permitted or refused trade licenses. The last chapter focuses on the Law against unfair competition from 1927 that was passed as the important reaction to business practice.

Production porcine et ressources génétiques locales en zone périurbaine de Cotonou et d’Abomey-Calavi au Bénin

Une enquête sur la production porcine et les ressources génétiques locales en zone périurbaine de Cotonou et d’Abomey-Calavi au Bénin a été réalisée de juin à août 2006. Les éleveurs étaient des artisans (44 p. 100), des agroéleveurs (20 p. 100) et des petits commerçants (12 p. 100). La plupart des éleveurs achetaient des animaux (76 p. 100) pour la constitution du troupeau. La taille moyenne des troupeaux était de 19 porcs dont 4,18 truies et 1,2 verrat en moyenne. Trois types d’élevage ont été identifiés. Dans le type 1, les propriétaires d’animaux étaient des artisans. Les animaux étaient élevés en divagation le jour et passaient la nuit dans un enclos pendant la saison sèche et étaient en liberté le jour comme la nuit pendant la saison des pluies. Dans le type 2, les animaux étaient élevés en claustration et les propriétaires étaient des commerçants ou exerçaient des métiers autres que ceux de l’agriculture, de l’élevage ou de l’artisanat. Ces propriétaires accordaient peu de soins vétérinaires aux animaux. Enfin, le type 3 d’élevage regroupait les agriculteurs et les éleveurs. Dans ce type d’élevage, les animaux bénéficiaient des soins vétérinaires et des traitements traditionnels à base de plantes médicinales. Ils étaient élevés en enclos le jour comme la nuit pendant la saison des pluies et bénéficiaient également de compléments alimentaires toute l’année. Quel qu’ait été le type d’élevage, les propositions d’amélioration souhaitées par les éleveurs ont été par ordre d’importance : la formulation des aliments, les soins préventifs et curatifs, l’élevage en claustration et le regroupement en coopérative. Les éleveurs souhaitaient prioritairement une aide (assistances technique et financière) (52 p. 100) et une extension de leur exploitation (28 p. 100).

Jordanian Employment in the Aqaba Labor Market

This table shows the employment of Jordanians across industrial, educational, and occupational groups as a percentage of total employment in 2003. Note that the three major industries (in order) are public administration/social services; trade, including hotels and restaurants; and manufacturing. Almost 50 percent of Jordanian workers had less than a secondary education, and almost 50 percent of all employees fell into three occupational groups: service, shop, and market sales; craft and related trades; and elementary occupations.

Metropolitanism, capital and patrimony: theorizing the postcolonial West African city

This article theorizes on a productive critical method of investigating the postcolonial ‘cityscape’, by relating liberal capital and metropolitan modernization to the discursive processes from which postmodern landscapes emerge in (West) Africa. When applied to a variety of texts, the method illuminates urbanization in Africa as a sustained process of influx of indigenous labour communities creating new physical, temporal and moral spatialities. Although the physical metropolitan space bears the features of multinational corporate capitalism, and attests to the staying power of imperialism and capitalistic commodification, its temporal and moral spaces unfold as a post‐urban ‘script’ against Victorian evolutionist urbanism. Supported chiefly by its ‘informal economics’ (crafts trade, street vending, shoe‐polishing, ‘smuggling’, etc.), Africa is ‘re‐villagizing’ itself by superimposing its indigenous cultures, institutions, traditions, norms and practices such as traditional medicine, highlife music, public morality, grandmother baby‐sitting, home catering services, thrift houses, ritual funerals, palmwine drinking homes and home languages, onto its urban scapes of sky‐rise buildings, hotels, commercial neighbourhoods and tarred roads. This cultural imbrication has enabled the reinvention of new notions of geopolitics and history that challenge stiff imperializing categories such as the urban and the rural, the global and the local.

„Schattenarbeiterinnen“ Frauen im Lebensmittelkleinhandel im Lyon des 17. Jahrhunderts: Ressourcen und Strategien

The purpose of this article is to discuss the economic role of women in the food trade of Lyons during the seventeenth century. Recent research has demonstrated that in the early modern European cities a high percentage of economic activity took place outside the normative structure of the guilds. The role of women in the craft and retail trade has therefore to be reconsidered. It is necessary to look beyond their varied legal and professional status and try to unveil their actual involvment, for example through judicial sources, in the early modern economy, within or outside the guilds. Using both official and repressive accounts, it is possible to reposition their activity within a larger set of household strategies for survival. The hypothesis is that what takes place on the margins of the law should not only be considered as an epiphenomenon but also as an essential component of exchange. The progressive emergence and institutionalization of guilds undoubtedly but paradoxically led to the exclusion of women. However, this emergence must not hide the connections that are actually preserved between the ‘informal’ and ‘official’ economy.