Artisanal economies create work in a time of unemployment, underemployment, robotization, off shore production, and the approach of a "jobless economy." Artisanal economies promote many social benefits. One of the most pressing of these is a way to address to crisis of opioid addiction now ravaging many US communities. The Artisanal Economies Project is designed to study the best artisanal practices, and the most promising artisanal ecosystems and platforms. The objective is to in improve our understanding of how artisanal economies work, the best practices of artisanal consumers, producers and intermediaries, and most important, the best points of entry for someone interested in joining the Artisanal Economy.

1. Building Artisanal Economies
Grant McCracken
grant27@gmail.com
January 5, 2017
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2. □ there is an employment crisis in the US
We can help by creating:
□ a system to aid in the growth of artisanal economies in
rural & urban areas
□ a system to help install new artisanal economies where
none exist
Benefits:
□ short term: job creation (which will in turn create)
□ new independence, liberty, and dignity for individuals
□ amelioration of social problems (e.g., opioid addiction)
□ long term: to help remedy an increasingly jobless
American economy that will continue to move jobs
offshore and robotize much of what remains
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3. we can help
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4. building and augmenting
artisanal economies
in the US
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5. what is an
artisanal economy?
• non industrial, sometimes “hand made” and locally sourced
• more labor intensive than capital intensive
• populated by owner-operators
• highly responsive to consumer demand
• “fills in” around other enterprises and tasks (e.g., farming & child rearing)
• encourages self sufficiency
• internet commerce (Etsy, etc.) and flourishing craft fairs open new paths to
market
• prizes the use of local resources and localities
• (i.e., this economy makes a virtue of the fact that these some of these
communities are rural and obscure. It’s part of the artisanal proposition.)
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6. why an artisanal
economy?• can be installed in economically distressed areas cheaply and
relatively quickly
• restores actors’ self esteem and armors them against opioid
addition and other social issues
• adapted to personnel and resources now in place in distressed
areas
• enables corporations to create social good (aka “purpose
marketing”)
• enables corporations to act decisively with money that falls outside
present budgets
• enables corporations to aid the new president in his push for the
rebuilding of the US economy
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7. “The coming decade will see
continuing economic transformation
and the emergence of an artisan
economy.”
(Intuit Future of Small Business, 2008)
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when an artisanal economy?

8. an influential economy
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9. “By 2005, meth was not just
challenging Oelwein’s sense
of itself; it had destroyed it.”
(Nick Reding. Methland.)
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why an artisanal economy
matters in the short term

10. 10
Semuels, Alana. “America’s Great Divergence.”
The Atlantic, January 30, 2017.

11. Cincinnati, Ohio suffered
174 heroin overdoses in 6
days in August in 2016
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12. new economies
spring up, for good or
ill
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13. why an artisanal economy
matters in the long term
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“I expect that one third of all men
between 25 and 54
will be out of work at mid century.”
(Lawrence Summers, Harvard economist.)

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15. 7 steps
1. rapid prototyping
study existing artisanal economies
extract and formalize best practices
2. create model(s)
3. devise system for installation of model(s) and skills
4. install test systems in 4 or 5 communities
5. link test communities with one another so they can learn from one
another
6. extract and formalize best practices
7. create national program
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16. the artisanal economy many facets
• agricultural production (e.g., Little Ghent Farm, with ties to local restaurants [Chez Panisse,] national chains
[Chipotle]
• small batch food production (e.g., bakeries, jams, pickles, herbs, honey, maple syrup, chocolates, extracts, etc. )
• small batch sundry production (e.g., jewelry, soap, artwork, candles, organic cleaning products, home decor,
seasonal decorations, baskets)
• small batch spirits production (1000s brands craft beer, 100s brands spirits:, e.g.,“Wyoming Whiskey,” “Town
Branch,”)
• food waste recycling (e.g., Cerplus, Forager Project, Misfit and Back to the Roots) and “precycling” (e.g., Zero
Market)
• farmer’s markets &roasting houses (local standing and online presence, e.g., La Java, Green Bay, Wisconsin,
Stumptown)
• craft fairs (preferably with regional pull, national reputation and online presence, e.g., Renegade Craft Fair,
Phoenicia Flea,)
• music festivals (preferably with regional pull and national reputation, e.g., Appalachian String Band Music
Festival)
• Letterpress printing (e.g., Wishbone, Bittersugar, Egg Press)
• DIY, and Maker (i.e., 3D printing, desktop manufacturing, maker movement, Maker Faires and Shapeways)
• clothing manufacture (e.g., Ebbets Field Flannels, Zady, Slow fashion movement)
• restaurants with local connections, regional standing & national reputation (e.g., The Barn at Blackberry Farm,
TN)
• clothing boutique and curation (e.g., Art in the Age, Philadelphia, The Hill-Side, Williamsburg, Hudson River
Exchange)
• assembling finished goods (e.g., Shinola, Detroit)
• innovation and product development (e.g., old Pfizer factory, Brooklyn)
• “channels” to market (i.e., Etsy, Amazon’s Handmade, etc., pop up stores, markets, fairs, website commerce)
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17. looking for variation
• we are not looking for “one size fits all”
• looking for variations on the theme and lots of
experiment
• we want to build economic models that can be
adapted by local communities for local conditions
• ~ 5 variations (communities may then mix and match
options to build their enterprise and local economy)
• looking for maximum autonomy & agency for local
actors
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18. maximizing for
• meaningful work
• remunerative labor
• drug abuse relief and release from social services
• building a local economic infrastructure
• tax generation
• regional benefits with national effects
• full agency to participants to build and adapt the system
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19. maximizing for
• speedy research and prototyping
• speedy installation of first tests and project
completion
• forestalling (perhaps obviating) the participation of
slow moving academics & bureaucrats
• make a system that “seeds” the world so that
people can get on with building their own
economies and lives
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20. Grant McCracken
• Ph.D. Anthropology, University of
Chicago
• has studied American culture for 30
years and the artisanal movement for
more than a decade
(http://cultureby.com/2006/11/the_artisan
al_m.html)
• founded: Institute of Contemporary
Culture, Royal Ontario Museum. taught:
Harvard Business School and M.I.T.
• advised: Netflix, Nike, Google, Ford
Motor Company, Ford Foundation, White
House, IBM, Sesame Street, Boston
Book Festival, Diageo, Canadian
Government.
• published: 14 books, 1.5 m words in
print.
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21. Sam Ford
• MIT grad
• VP of Innovation & Engagement,
Fusion Media Group
• co-author Spreadable Media
NYU Press
• publishes widely: Harvard
Business Review, Fast
Company, Boston Globe, Wall
Street Journal
• consults widely: The Coca-Cola
Company, Microsoft, MIT,
Peppercomm, Univision, 99
Antennas
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22. Leora Kornfeld
• Host, Radio Sonic, CBC radio
• Masters, Goldsmiths College
• Manager, Nardwaur
• Research Associate,
Harvard Business School
• world standing as expert in the
economics of new media
(www.demassed.blogspot.com
)
• now teaching Schulich
Business School, York
University
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23. Scott Miller
• founder: Core
Strategy Group
• author:The Underdog
Advantage
• founder: Partnership
for a Healthier
America
• founder: We Need
Smith
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24. Peter Spear
• Founder: Spear
Consulting
• Author: The Alleys of
Hudson, New York
• Advisor: John S. and
James L. Knight
Foundation
• Board Member: Kite’s
Nest
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25. push-backs
against the proposition
• preliminary interviews raise
following “red flag” contentions:
• artisanal enterprises will never be
profit making
• artisanal enterprises are up against
the US addiction to “cheap food”
• the industrial economy will always
beat the artisanal one
• artisanal economies cannot be self-
sustaining
• all of these are empirical questions
and point of the research project
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26. postcards from the
artisanal economy
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