Workers will need a personal touch
Artisan economy is one that is quickly emerging
If you think of artisans as the producers of handcrafted furniture and one-of-a-kind jewelry, raw-milk cheeses and small-batch whiskeys, think again.
With globalization and computerization upending many traditional workplaces, analysts predict successful 21st-century workers in all sorts of fields will have to summon their inner artisan. That includes not just the jewellers and cheesemakers but personal trainers, hairdressers and caregivers.
“The major shift that we’ve seen is the shift back toward artisans, in the sense that people now have to take responsibility for their careers, for their lives, more so than before, and they have to create value if they’re going to be successful,” said Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research in California’s Bay Area, who specializes in the future of work.
Harvard economist Larry Katz has become a guru of sorts of the new artisan economy. He argues that many well-paying jobs of the future will be in the service sector and will reward people whose skills and personal touch set them apart. One example he has offered is a well-educated caregiver able to engage with elderly clients as opposed to someone who approaches the work as drudgery.
“People will always need haircuts and health care,” he told The New York Times, “and you can do that with low-wage labour or with people who acquire a lot of skills and pride and bring their imagination to do creative and customized things.”
King spelled out his vision of an emerging artisan class in a 2008 report for the Institute for the Future. “Like their medieval predecessors in pre-industrial Europe and Asia, these nextgeneration artisans will ply their trade outside the walls of big business, making a living with their craftsmanship and knowledge,” he wrote.
Many see this new world as one of unlimited potential, where technology allows small-scale manufacturers to reach previ- ously unobtainable markets.
Chris Anderson, editor-inchief of Wired, wrote of a new Industrial Revolution in which “anybody with an idea and a little expertise can set assembly lines in China into motion with nothing more than some keystrokes on their laptop.” He predicted that the “collective potential of a million garage tinkerers is about to be unleashed on global markets, as ideas go straight into production, no financing or tooling required.”
Charles Heying, a professor of urban studies at Portland State University, has studied the thriving artisan economy in his Oregon city. He believes the model that has produced thriving craft breweries, bike-frame manufacturers and fashion designers in Portland could have broad applications.
“What makes this possible is that we are now in a networked world. We have eliminated the purpose for hierarchies and large mass institutions,” he said.