NEW CRAFT: new sustainable forms of 'making'
The way we manufacture and use products is under pressure. Global supply chains make it possible to produce goods quickly and cheaply, but they also create new vulnerabilities. Shortages of raw materials, climate change, and geopolitical tensions make it clear that our current model of production is no longer sustainable.
About the project
NEW CRAFT is an anthropological project that looks at how 'making' is being reinvented in two significant European manufacturing regions (the Netherlands and Italy) by diverse actors such as businesses, citizens, and institutions. NEW CRAFT addresses the socio-economic, environmental and geopolitical vulnerabilities of contemporary supply-chain, asking: how is ‘making’, as a cultural and socio-economic practice, being reinvented in different ways within post-industrial Europe? The project compares initiatives in the Dutch Randstad and Lombardy (Italy) to investigate why, how and with which goals businesses, NGOs and public institutions engage in processes of “recrafting” in response to sustainability crises and societal deskilling.
This research project is open for students from Sociology of Policy in Practice and Visual Ethnography.