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Cover image of Global Markets and Local Crafts
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Global Markets and Local Crafts

Thailand and Costa Rica Compared

Frederick F. Wherry

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Today it is not uncommon to find items in department stores that are hand-crafted in countries like Thailand and Costa Rica. These "traditional" crafts now make up an important part of a global market. They support local and sometimes national economies and help create and solidify cultural identity. But these crafts are not necessarily indigenous. Whereas Thailand markets crafts with a long history and cultural legacy, Costa Rica has created a local handicraft tradition where none was known to exist previously.

In Global Markets and Local Crafts, Frederick F. Wherry compares the handicraft...

Today it is not uncommon to find items in department stores that are hand-crafted in countries like Thailand and Costa Rica. These "traditional" crafts now make up an important part of a global market. They support local and sometimes national economies and help create and solidify cultural identity. But these crafts are not necessarily indigenous. Whereas Thailand markets crafts with a long history and cultural legacy, Costa Rica has created a local handicraft tradition where none was known to exist previously.

In Global Markets and Local Crafts, Frederick F. Wherry compares the handicraft industries of Thailand and Costa Rica to show how local cultural industries break into global markets and, conversely, how global markets affect the ways in which artisans understand, adapt, and utilize their cultural traditions. Wherry develops a new framework for studying globalization by considering the phenomenon from the perspective of the supplier instead of the market. Drawing from interviews and extensive fieldwork shadowing artisans and exporters in their daily dealings, Wherry offers a rare account of globalization in motion—and what happens when market negotiations do not proceed as planned.

Considering economic and political forces, flows of people and materials, and frames that define cultural and market situations as they play out in the artisan communities of these two countries, Wherry uncovers how authentic folk tradition is capitalized or created.

Reviews

Reviews

Global Markets and Local Crafts is a must read for anyone involved in a global project that relates to family survival, development of cottage industries, preservation of traditional crafts, or the impact of social, cultural, and political forces on small scaled artisans.

This thought-provoking book will help build bridges between consumption studies and the sociology of culture, economic sociology, and the sociology of development.

A particularly important and original contribution to debates on cultural production and consumption.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
208
ISBN
9780801887949
Illustration Description
6 halftones, 5 line drawings, 2 maps
Table of Contents

Preface
1. Introduction: Making Culture or Making Work?
2. The Frames and Forces of the Market
3. Same Local Traditions, Different Frames
4. The Flows of Production
5. Framing Authenticity
6. Conclusion

Preface
1. Introduction: Making Culture or Making Work?
2. The Frames and Forces of the Market
3. Same Local Traditions, Different Frames
4. The Flows of Production
5. Framing Authenticity
6. Conclusion: The Three Fs of Globalization
Appendix: Study Design
References
Index

Author Bio
Resources

Additional Resources