Essays on Craft and Communities

While previous research has often explored questions surrounding disruption or change, recent crises, and ongoing societal disruptions direct our attention to the challenges surrounding resilience, stability, and the continuity of cherished societal structures, organizations, and institutions. This thesis centers empirically around one of the timeless modes of production – craft, as well as one of the oldest forms of informal organizing – communities. The three studies in this thesis all explore questions surrounding the motivations of individuals and collectives for continuous engagement with the social structures they are part of. Paper 1 investigates how historical dependence on an institution due to local hardship played an important role in the continuous participation in and long-term vitality of a heritage craft in rural Poland. Paper 2 explores how individual craftspeople find deeper meanings in their craft, through which they enchant the otherwise daunting process of cross-generational transfer of embodied knowledge. Paper 3 problematizes the concept of geographical communities, develops a typology to capture crucial differences between their variations, and discusses the consequences they pose for formal organizations working with communities to sustainably address societal issues.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Zebrowska, Monika

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Howard-Grenville, Jennifer
• Kroezen, Jochem

• Organisational theory
• Craft
• Communities
• Community organising

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/abf5d549-62d2-4160-a7be-a30358040a01/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

Author Identifier

0000-0003-0284-789X

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/377293