Situating Craft Guilds in the Creative Economy: Histories, Politics and Practices

手工艺行会的货币、角色和做法代表着我们对当代创意部门的认识和理解存在着巨大的差距。这种缺乏批判性的关注似乎暗示着，与其他创意子行业(如数字媒体)相比，它们是边缘的、怀旧的和反常的。然而，手工艺行会表现出一个非常独特的显著特征的组合：非同寻常的悠久和有弹性的，有着深厚的历史渊源和广泛的文化轨迹；通常以艺术家为主导；特定于特定的实践范围；通过专门的技能美学来控制质量，诞生于长期的学徒生涯；空间定义的，主要是农村的‘县’成员规模相当大；生产的作品是数百万人最容易获得的艺术体验形式。因此，它们的内部治理深深牵涉到一系列关键的区别和工作做法，具有悠久的历史和复杂的政治和地理环境。这项研究将审查行业协会的组织和管理，以及它们在工艺经济中为支持成员资格所发挥的作用。将治理和实践结合在一起，它将询问这些政策对于最近被给予如此高的国家经济优先地位的更广泛的创意产业发展政策的当代相关性有多大。因此，将注意在区域、国家和国际各级将行会置于该部门的正式治理范围内。这将包括行会组织的历史背景，以及与二十世纪和二十一世纪政策主导的、全部门的支助倡议的联系。现在是时候注意到，传统上所谓的“边缘”行会组织的活动，正是现在渴望支持“新的”更广泛的创意产业经济的活动--建立网络、指导、支持微型企业、促进新市场和促进创新。调查行会活动的地域将解决以下关键问题：网络的动态；以从业者为主导的实践社区的支撑；支持外围地区单独从业者的长期机制；产品和市场创新。行会在其成员的创造性生活中的地位也将被审查。从历史上看，行会一直被理解为从业者提供各种机会与他们的同行建立网络，展示和销售他们的作品，获得持续的专业发展，并成为从业者领导的网络的一部分，该网络在地区、国家和国际范围内支持他们的手艺。这项研究将询问从业者关于行会在他们职业生涯中的作用和价值。鉴于工艺美术运动的强大遗产及其相互依存的精神和社会主义原则，这项研究将试图理解嵌入行业协会成员实践中的道德和伦理政治。通过在历史背景下考察手工艺政治，本研究将试图质疑和理解手工艺政治对当代行会组织的影响。这项研究将在创意产业的更广泛背景下，提供对当代行会的历史和地理位置的分析。目前，手工艺业为英国经济贡献了30亿GB的GVA(估计有63%的进一步增长潜力)，并雇用了13%的创意部门工作人员(约8.8万人)，其中许多人拥有行业协会会员资格。在英国有100多个自定义的手工艺行会，还有更多行会式的协会。这项研究将考虑当代手工艺行业协会在促进其成员发展和创新方面的作用，并将揭示了解行业协会实践可以为更广泛的创意经济带来的价值。

The currency, role and practices of craft guilds represent a significant gap in our knowledge and understanding of the contemporary creative sector. This lack of critical attention seems to imply that they are marginal, nostalgic, and anomalous, in contrast with other creative sub-sectors such as 'digital media'. Yet craft guilds display a very distinctive combination of notable characteristics: unusually longstanding and resilient, with deep historical roots and wide cultural trajectories; typically artist-maker led; specific to a particular range of practices; quality-controlled through specialised aesthetics of skill, born of long apprenticeship; spatially-defined, with primarily rural 'county' memberships of considerable size; producing work which is the most accessible form of artistic experience for millions of people. As such, their internal governance is deeply implicated in a key range of distinctions and working practices with long histories and complex politics and geographies. The research will examine both the organisation and management of guilds and their functions for their supporting membership within the craft economy. Bringing together both governance and practices, it will interrogate just how rich in contemporary relevance these are for the wider development policies of the 'creative industries', which have recently been given such high national economic priority. Attention will therefore be given to situating guilds within the formal governance of the sector at regional, national and international scales. This will include the historical context of guild organisation and the links to policy-led, sector-wide, support initiatives in the twentieth and twenty-first century. It is timely to note that the activities that the supposedly 'marginal' guilds have traditionally organised are precisely those now being aspired to in support of the 'new' broader creative industrial economy - networking, mentoring, supporting micro-businesses, promoting new markets and fostering innovation. Investigating the geographies of guild activities will address key issues here: the dynamics of networking; the sustenance of practitioner-led communities of practice; long-term mechanisms for supporting lone practitioners in peripheral areas; product and market innovation.The place of the guild in the creative life of its membership will also be examined. Historically, guild's have been understood to offer practitioners a variety of opportunities to network with their peers, display and sell their work, access continued professional development, and be part of a practitioner led network that champions their craft at a regional, national and international scale. This research will ask practitioners about the role and value of the guild in their practice over the course of their career. Given the powerful legacy of the Arts and Crafts movement with its ethos of mutuality and socialist principles, this research will seek to understand the moral and ethical politics embedded in guild members' practices. By investigating the politics of craft in a historical context, the research will seek to question and understand the implications of craft politics for contemporary guild organisations. This research will offer a historically and geographically situated analysis of contemporary guilds within the broader context of the creative industries. At present the craft industry contributes £3 billion GVA to the UK economy (with an estimated potential for further growth of 63%) and employs up 13% of people working within the creative sector (around 88,000 people) many of whom hold guild membership. There are over 100 self-defined craft guilds operating across the UK and many more guild-styled associations. The research will consider the role of contemporary craft guilds in fostering development and innovation for their members, and will bring out the value that understanding guild practices can deliver to the wider creative economy.