PHR 312 Radical Labor and Artisan Movements
This course examines historical and contemporary social movements related to craft and labor. Beginning with the nineteenth century British Arts and Crafts Movement, which revived traditional handicrafts against industrialization, this course surveys twentieth and twenty-first movements that have mobilized craft as a form of protest against colonialism, industrialization, gender and racial inequality, and the devaluation of individual labor in capitalist consumer economy. Topics include craft as a tool of ethical remediation and may include craft utopias, socialist workshops and cooperatives, communist collectives, craftivism, workers rights, economic satyagraha, unions, steampunk, and do-it-yourself culture. Ethnographic fieldwork will complement in-class discussion.