Aspirational economies of self and city:

Values, spaces, and governance of indie crafters from Columbus, Ohio

Jessica R. Barnes
Adviser Dr. Nancy Ettlinger

Problem
Aspiring artists may be a drag on their personal and regional economies by consuming entrepreneurship with few monetary returns.
Why do they subsist? What are the effects?

Hand knitted self coiling snake by nattyknitclare from Flickr

Problem
In 2009,

3,633 selfemployer firms

were listed as

independent artists, writers, & performers

in Columbus - receipts total more than

$50 million
(U.S. Census Bureau, 2009)

Hand knitted dissected frog by The Crafty Hedgehog via technabob.com

Question:
How do aspiring entrepreneurial indie crafters practices fit into personal and regional economies?

Boombox Quilt by J.Jill from Stylehive.com

Foucauldian Question:
How are these systems maintained when most participants receive so little monetary value?

Piper Kinsvater/ Flickr

Issue questions:

How is entrepreneurial indie crafting practiced and sustained for aspirants in Columbus? What values are generated through aspirant practices and to whom and where do these values accumulate? How does the use of space for aspiring indie crafters in Columbus compare with current conceptions of the geographies of arts work?

SITUATING: Why arts work matters?

32 million Americans consider themselves artists and about 10 million receive compensation for their work (Madden, 2004) Cultural production has been regarded as a possible future of employment and economic growth in many postindustrial regions (Ellmeier, 2003) Florida's (2002) creative class notion that creative workers draw firms to a region

http://clarkeartconsulting.com/blog/marketing-forartists/5-tips-on-how-to-sell-your-artwork-in-theseeconomic-times/

SITUATING: Economic impacts Arts workers tend to receive low monetary values, but . . .
Artistic dividend - conceptualized as artists' work
creating import-substituting entertainment options within regions and contributing to export base (Markusen & Schrock, 2009; Markusen & Schrock, 2006; Markusen & King, 2003)

Amenity values entertainment options to draw in

other professionals to a region (Florida, 2002; Glaeser, Kolko, & Saiz, 2001)
Columbus Short North Gallery Hop

http://www.examiner.com/homeimprovement-and-design-incolumbus/columbus-gallery-hopphoto

Ohio mixtape hat

From AlisonRose Etsy Shop

Contributions:
aspirational economies: how does amateur and aspiring arts work contribute to local economies circulation of multiple values how arts work affects individual livelihoods

artist entrepreneur continuum:

dynamic intersections:

dynamic intersections:

dynamic intersections:

SITUATING: Informal economies

self-employed workers outside the purview of: - formal mechanisms for measurement (such as census categories for arts workers)

- social policies for worker welfare and taxation

- cultural development initiatives that focus on larger firms (Williams, 2006)

Knit beards from the book Indie Craft by Jo Waterhouse

Contributions:
qualitative data on how crafters relate to the informal economy

- What are the constraints and benefits for people?

- Do they want the social safety-net or to avoid regulations?

SITUATING: Livelihoods approach

means of gaining a living through one's capabilities and assets (including both material and social resources) that can be maintained into the future (Chambers & Conway, 1992)

Scarf in progress from Indie Knits Blog

Contributions:
applying livelihoods approaches to people in post-industrial urban economies how arts work can be understood as part individual livelihoods

SITUATING: Multiple types of values

monetary value cultural capital

environmental values
personal values use / process values
(Markusen & Shrock, 2006; Bourdieu, 1993; Lee, 2006; Dawkins, 2011)
Recycled t-shirt quilt by Sujata Shah from Material Culture Blog

Contributions:
impacts beyond the economic: alternative types of value

tracing flows of value from craft work

SITUATING: artist spaces

spatial agglomeration of firms and workers to take quick advantage of new configurations and stay in contact for informal and flexible work (Gibson & Kong, 2005; Grabher, 2001;Scott, 1999; Storper & Venables, 2004; Currid, 2007)

amplified in cities with larger populations because scale economies offer a larger market for arts employment and more skilled workers (Florida, Mellander & Stolarick, 2010; Kloosterman, 2004) spatial proximity (Storper & Venables, 2004; Morgan, 2004) is thought to be particularly important for learning and socialization , but other aspects such as relational proximity, (immaterial) support networks, and the virtual connections have also been considered of growing importance (Watson, 2008; Lloyd, 2004; Jones, Spigel, & Malecki, 2010)

Locations of Indie Crafters

Shultz (2011) maps the locations of indie crafters via Etsy pages proximity is no longer a requirement for success of art industries

Contributions:
qualitative research on understanding crafters' locations

changes in location choices with technology

micro-scale spaces of livelihood practices

where values circulate and accumulate to

Research Strategies:
locational context:

Why crafters from Columbus?

Research Strategies:
Grounded semi-structured interviews & focus groups: (with indie crafters, resellers, & consumers) Participant observation (at sales, training, events) Discourse analysis

(talk & representations in online communities, media, & interviews)

Participant space / time representations (via photography, video, or other medium to

Research Strategies:
Participant space / time representations

Knitter on the bus, Seattle, Washington by Jay Trinidad (http://jaytrinidad.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html)

Research Goals:
- identifying crafters' practices - understandings of value - mentalities - relations - material conditions & spaces - identifying detrimental tendencies & beneficial practices

Map messenger bag from FineCraftGuild.com

Questions & comments?