Supporting Diversity and Expertise Development in the Contemporary Craft Economy [Phase 2]

该项目借鉴了英国和澳大利亚的研究成果，重点支持当代工艺经济的多样性。该项目延续了伯明翰城市大学和英国工艺委员会之间的合作，旨在突出英国工艺中彩色制造商的经验，并努力支持一个更具包容性的行业。在项目的第一阶段，我们进行了采访，并制作了一个名为“创客故事”的播客系列。目前进行的研究表明，有色人种女性的工艺技能受到质疑或贬低，主要是因为她们的种族，但在某些情况下，也因为她们的阶级。因此，他们很难在英国工艺行业建立自己或获得知名度。在第一阶段，COVID-19大流行在世界各地蔓延，随着一些制造商利用他们的技能帮助应对疫情，工艺技能的效用变得明显，工艺作为一种打发时间的手段变得更加流行（Murray, 2020）。大约在2020年的同一时间，英国围绕“黑人的命也是命”运动的活动有所增加，这有助于引起人们对英国工艺品白人化的关注。尽管英国工艺经济在过去十年中有了显着增长，但专业彩色制造商的比例保持不变，为4% （Crafts Council, 2020）。该项目的第二阶段将探索手工艺如何更具包容性，研究种族、阶级和数字鸿沟之间的不平等如何在手工艺中体现出来，提供切实可行的干预措施来解决这些问题，并探索进入市场的替代途径，以便更多的人为手工艺经济做出贡献，并帮助其在大流行后的复苏。其中一些研究将在澳大利亚进行，那里的工艺也非常受欢迎，但该行业也存在种族主义（Taylor, 2019）。该计划的重点是手工艺经济以外的专业领域，即社区手工艺和社会企业。这将包括采访制造者，观察英国和澳大利亚的社区手工艺团体和手工艺社会企业。这项工作将提高人们对制作者的具体经验的认识，他们的工作不一定被认为是“专家”或有价值的。这是因为它位于专业化领域之外，这往往与高级艺术美学和白人，中产阶级，以欧洲为中心的品味有关（Luckman, 2015）。本研究试图挑战英国移民和散居社区（见Bhachu， 2004）和澳大利亚土著社区（Myers, 2002）创造的手工艺在两个国家内的现有等级制度，这两个国家的手工艺被贬低了[见Patel_CfS]。这项研究将为如何挑战或破坏工艺等级制度的思考提供信息，以促进一个更具包容性的行业。该研究还将包括在线人种学，将重点放在Instagram等社交媒体平台上，自2019年以来，关于针织和纤维工艺品中的种族主义的辩论一直在这些平台上进行。这些争论经常导致有色人种制造者在网上感到被攻击和污名化。该项目第一阶段的研究还表明，一些彩妆制造商不愿在网上出现，因为担心被滥用。一些旨在支持彩色制造商的在线空间已经出现，例如英国的纤维BIPOC和澳大利亚的悉尼被取消。在线人种志将探讨制造者如何管理他们的在线存在，以及前面提到的安全空间如何促进包容性。这项研究将为工艺和创意组织以及工艺教育提供者（在继续教育和高等教育中）提供实用指导，以使他们的空间更具包容性。我们还将制作学术作品和两部音频纪录片，以提高人们对有色制作人所面临的具体挑战的认识。

This project focuses on supporting diversity in the contemporary craft economy, drawing on research from the UK and Australia. The project continues an ongoing collaboration between Birmingham City University and Crafts Council UK which seeks to highlight the experiences of makers of colour in UK craft, and work towards supporting a more inclusive sector. During the first phase of the project we have carried out interviews and produced a podcast series called Maker Stories. The research carried out so far suggests that the craft expertise of women of colour is questioned or devalued primarily because of their ethnicity, but in some cases also because of their class. As a result it is difficult for them to establish themselves or gain visibility in the UK craft sector. During phase one the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, and the utility of craft skills became apparent as some makers used their skills to help with the response, and craft became even more popular as a means to pass the time (Murray, 2020). At around the same time in 2020 there was increased activity around the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, which helped to draw attention to the whiteness of UK craft. Though the UK craft economy has grown significantly over the past decade, the proportion of professional makers of colour has stayed the same, at 4% (Crafts Council, 2020). Phase two of this project will explore how craft can be more inclusive, looking at how inequalities around race, class and the digital divide are manifest in craft, providing practical interventions to address them and exploring alternative pathways to market, so that more people can contribute to the craft economy and aid its recovery post-pandemic. Some of the research will be carried out in Australia, where craft is also hugely popular, but where there is also racism in the sector (Taylor, 2019). The project will focus on areas of the craft economy which lie outside of the professionalised sector, namely community crafts and social enterprises. This will involve interviews with makers, observation of community craft groups and craft social enterprises in the UK and Australia. This work will raise a greater awareness of the specific experiences of makers whose work is not necessarily considered 'expert' or valuable. This is because it lies outside of the professionalised domain, which tends to be allied to high art aesthetics and white, middle class, Eurocentric tastes (Luckman, 2015). This research seeks to challenge these existing hierarchies of craft within two countries where craft created by migrant and diasporic communities in the UK (see Bhachu, 2004), and indigenous communities in Australia (Myers, 2002), are devalued [see Patel_CfS]. The research will inform thinking around how hierarchies of craft can be challenged or disrupted, to foster a more inclusive sector. The research will also include online ethnography, which will focus on social media platforms such as Instagram, where debates about racism in knitting and fibre crafts have been occurring since 2019. These debates have often resulted in makers of colour feeling targeted and stigmatised online. Research from phase one of the project also suggests that some makers of colour are reluctant to have a significant online presence, for fear of abuse. Some online spaces have emerged which aim to support makers of colour, such as BIPOC in Fiber in the UK and Sydney is Cancelled in Australia. The online ethnography will explore how the makers involved manage their online presence, and what the aforementioned safe spaces do to foster inclusion. The research will inform a toolkit with practical guidance for craft and creative organisations and craft education providers (in further and higher education) to adopt, to make their spaces more inclusive. We will also produce academic outputs and a two-part audio documentary to raise awareness of the specific challenges makers of colour face.