Kirstin Munro, Chris O’Kane

Abstract

Small artisan businesses have been promoted as a liberatory alternative to large-scale enterprise. We analyze advice manuals for aspiring artisan entrepreneurs by extending Boltanski and Chiapello’s framework. While they analyze the transformation of large firms, we show the same themes have been adopted by small businesses. Focusing on themes of autonomy and creativity, we reveal that the artisan economy promoted by these texts represents a further evolution in capitalism’s co-option of the artistic critique.

Keywords

Critiques of and alternatives to capitalism, evolution of capitalist institutions, precarious work

From: Review of Radical Political Economics 49 (4)

Editor: Wang Yi