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Back to the future: Artisan work and the return of the labour theory of value, pt. II; By Hung Lee
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What is an artisan?
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
An artisan is a skilled craft worker who makes things by hand that are functional as well as decorative, for example furniture, clothing, food items, household items and tools or even mechanisms such as the handmade clockwork movement of a watchmaker. Artisans practice a craftand through experience and aptitude reach the expressive levels of an artist, though differ from artists in that their output is intended for practical use.
In modern parlance, “artisanal” is commonly used to describe hand-processing what had become an industrial process. Food processing, furniture manufacture or making textiles – all long since mechanised and automated in the factory system in the developed world – are being revived as artisanal crafts by smallholders or individual craftsmen.
There was clear symmetry too, in the motives of the artisans and the WEIRD consumers that they service, coming as they do from the same demographic; a rejection of the relentless rational calculation of ROI, the Smithian, and the return to valuing the human made.
Nearly all interviewed workers claimed to be making less money than they would had they stayed on the corporate ladder – some significantly so – but were satisfied in their decision as they lifestyle gains which made the move worthwhile; control over work, time, environment and relationships.
