Abstract
Existing research has highlighted a global return into fashion of craft work in the new century. Within this context, the term ‘neo-craft’ work has been used to identify innovative craft work practices characterised by an aura of ‘coolness’, which promise a less alienated form of work; yet, the specific contours of this new form of work remain uncertain. In this article we develop a theoretical conceptualisation of neo-craft work. We define it as an emergent form of post-industrial craft work whereby work that was previously considered low-status, or performed by the working class, is: a) ‘resignified’ into status-producing activity through the integration of craft practices and values; and, b) conferred new meaningfulness as the outcome of a specific process of discursive materiality, by which the intra-action of discursive and material practices provides meaning to work activity. Neo-craft work, we contend, finds roots in the cultural milieu of hipster culture, where extenuating cultural negotiations around authenticity and ‘the particular’ constitute the baseline for a quest for social status based on practices of ‘marginal distinction’, and sets itself as an alternative not only to industrial work but, primarily, to the precarious, low-paid or otherwise unsatisfactory ‘bullshit jobs’ of the knowledge and creative economy.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Organization Studies |
Early online date | 2 Nov 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 2 Nov 2023 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentsThis article is part of the CRAFTWORK project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 948982). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and the Guest Editors, particularly Jochem Kroezen, for their support and extremely insightful comments throughout the review process
Keywords
- craft work
- discursive materiality
- hipster culture
- marginal distinction
- neo-craft work
- meaningful work
- new forms of work