Crafting your way out of the recession? New craft entrepreneurs and the global economic downturn

Economic developers often celebrate making crafts for a living as a growing sector and positive career choice in these difficult economic times. Craft-making has not only been defined as a viable business choice but has also emerged as a thriving multibillion-dollar industry during the global economic recession. What seems like a lucrative business opportunity and successful career, however, is laden with difficulties and contradictions. The current economic drivers of the ‘third wave of crafting’ are not the crafters themselves, but craft support companies whose business strategies often contradict the political ideals on which today’s craft movement is built. This paper sheds light on the differing components of the craft-making sector and addresses some limitations of the creative class thesis. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.