Craft Fetishism

Skill, Labor, and the Artisanal Imaginary

Abstract

A central concern in Braverman’s (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital is the role of skill in the struggle between labor and capital. The lasting understanding of the deskilling thesis is that changes in the organization of the labor process and its technical composition led to a siphoning of skill from the craft worker and its translation to specialized knowledge controlled by the professional managerial class. Fifty years since the book’s publication, many processes Braverman described have continued to develop, even as management itself has been deskilled, distributed, and technologically rationalized. Over the past two decades, however, skill has emerged as a new site of scholarly debate, espoused by many as a path to liberation for today’s immaterial workers. As digital technologies increasingly mediate social and working life, material skills practice offers potential reconnection to material knowledge and traditions. Arising alongside this emerging craft discourse are diverse economic manifestations of “craft capitalism.” From heritage denim to craft beer, craft-branded commodities inhabit a privileged position in 21st century urban economies. This paper interrogates tensions between craft mythologies and labor process organization in craft industries, examining how craft skill is fetishized—remaining alienated from craft workers while deployed as a simulacrum for a timeless artisan and pre-industrial production routines.