Login
       
  • Design recycle meets the product introduction hall: Craft, locality and agency in northern Japan

Teasley, Sarah, 2018, Book Section, Design recycle meets the product introduction hall: Craft, locality and agency in northern Japan In: Luckman, Susan and Thomas, Nicola, (eds.) Craft Economies. Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 162-172. ISBN 9781474259569

Abstract or Description:

This chapter explores methods by which existing local manufacturing industries reframe and reshape themselves in relation to local, regional, national and international networks to survive through changing economic, social, technological, political and cultural conditions. It articulates how Colon Design and Chobundo, a Yamagata iron-casting firm, have engaged with new actors and technologies in local, regional, national and international networks to reframe local crafts products as lifestyle goods for new markets, as a way to secure a future for Yamagata crafts. A key theme is ‘the local’ and how the various actors – at the national as well as local level – understand and employ the concept within crafts promotion activities in Yamagata. I suggest that ‘the local’ is subject to interpretive flexibility and that actors have varying investments in Yamagata as a locale, but that these differing understandings and investments do not impede collaboration. Rather, the interactions discussed here are pragmatic collaborations to achieve differing aims through shared results. A further hope is that presenting some actors and interactions might offer a model for carrying out similar initiatives elsewhere. The chapter builds on research conducted in 2012 through an AHRC Early Career Fellowship and in 2013 through British Academy International Mobility Grant, and forms part of Teasley's research into methods for contemporary history - social, economic, political and cultural - through the lens of design, craft and industry.

Official URL: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/craft-economies-9781...
Subjects: Other > Eastern > T200 Japanese studies
Other > Eastern > T200 Japanese studies > T230 Japanese Society and Culture studies
Other > Historical and Philosophical studies > V100 History by period > V140 Modern History > V148 Modern History 2000-2099
Other > Historical and Philosophical studies > V300 History by topic > V320 Social History > V321 Local History
Other > Historical and Philosophical studies > V300 History by topic > V370 History of Design
School or Centre: School of Arts & Humanities
Funders: Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy
Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2017 14:25
Last Modified: 28 Oct 2019 15:14
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/2889
Edit Item (login required) Edit Item (login required)