Warp and weft of craft apprenticeships: how do handloom weavers learn their craft and weave their futures?

Thesis

Craft apprenticeships are complex webs where identities, social life, and livelihoods are intertwined. The central question that this multi-sited ethnographic study explores is how communities of handloom weavers in India learn and sustain their craft traditions while adapting their knowledge practices to navigate evolving challenges of contemporary times. The ethnographic fieldwork was conducted among women handloom weavers in Kethun (near Kota) in Rajasthan and villages in the Kamrup region of Assam. Highly specialised skills are passed down from one generation to the next, in ‘informal’ settings and become a form of embodied capital. Through intricate narratives of the work lives of women, this study draws insights into their relationship with the craft and aspirations. Recently, skill intervention programs have introduced opportunities for weavers to enhance their embodied capital by acquiring ‘professional’ skills in digital marketing and design, aimed at reinventing their products and boosting livelihoods. The study traces women weavers’ varied engagements with these intervention programmes to locate the sites of resistance, tension, and negotiations with ideas of authenticity, tradition, modernity, and empowerment. By bringing together the ethnographic insights about learning and work, this study contributes to deepening our understanding of apprenticeships and agency, as communities strategise and make choices informed by their social positions and broader discourses.

Authors: Chakravarty, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-rjne8m4ye
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: apprenticeship; multisited ethnography; distributed agency; skill labour; craft learning; work based learning; embodied learning
• Subjects: Developing countries; Education; Educational anthropology