The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work: Craftwork in Twenty-First Century England | BERGHAHN BOOKS
Join our Email List Berghahn Books Logo

berghahn New York · Oxford
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
Browse
The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work: Craftwork in Twenty-First Century England

View Table of Contents


Series
Volume 4

New Anthropologies of Europe: Perspectives and Provocations



See Related
Anthropology Journals

Email Newsletters

Sign up for our email newsletters to get customized updates on new Berghahn publications.

Click here to select your preferences

The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work

Craftwork in Twenty-First Century England

Trevor H. J. Marchand

482 pages, 21 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-80073-274-2 $179.00/£132.00 / Hb / Published (November 2021)

eISBN 978-1-80073-275-9 eBook

https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800732742


View CartYour country: - edit  Request a Review or Examination Copy (in Digital Format)Recommend to your LibraryAvailable in GOBI®

Reviews

“An exemplary illustration of how the evocative power of a rich ethnography, sympathetic to interlocutors and resulting from long-term, deep personal involvement of the researcher, can bring the reader to connect individual life-paths to crucial societal issues, and ultimately shape discourse about what counts as intelligence, the purpose of education, and the meanings we attribute to work. I can imagine the book becoming required reading as part of curricula on the anthropology of education, the anthropology of work, and…in the education sciences.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“The narrative is historically informative, provides a thorough overview for anyone interested in a woodwork career and is suitable for a general audience.” • Garland Magazine

“This book stands at the pinnacle of the body of work produced over the course of a career by a distinguished academic; it is the masterpiece of a craftsman who has sought ceaselessly for greater nuances of skillful expression both in his chosen crafts and in his writings about them.” • Roy Dilley, University of St Andrews

“The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work is an outstanding contribution to the anthropology of craft and education. Marchand’s ethnographic inquiry into British woodworking is intellectually versatile, bringing the fields of economics and work, education and ideology, as well as neuroscience and philosophy to bear on the everyday concern of crafting a meaningful identity and pleasurable life.” • Erin O’Connor, Marymount Manhattan College

Description

Against the backdrop of an alienating, technologizing and ever-accelerating world of material production, this book tells an intimate story: one about a community of woodworkers training at an historic institution in London’s East End during the present ‘renaissance of craftsmanship’. The animated and scholarly accounts of learning, achievement and challenges reveal the deep human desire to create with our hands, the persistent longing to find meaningful work, and the struggle to realise dreams. In its penetrating explorations of the nature of embodied skill, the book champions greater appreciation for the dexterity, ingenuity and intelligence that lie at the heart of craftwork.

Trevor H. J. Marchand is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London, and recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Rivers Memorial Medal. He is also a trained architect (McGill University) and qualified as a fine woodworker at London’s Building Crafts College. Marchand has conducted fieldwork with craftspeople around the world and published extensively, including the monographs Minaret Building and Apprenticeship in Yemen (Routledge, 2001) and The Masons of Djenné (Indiana, 2009).

A Blog post written by Trevor H. J. Marchand:
https://ewap-brookes.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-pursuit-of-pleasurable-work.html

Subject: Anthropology (General)Sociology
Area: Northern Europe



Contents

Download ToC (PDF)

Back to Top



Library Recommendation Form

Dear Librarian,

I would like to recommend The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work Craftwork in Twenty-First Century England for the library. Please include it in your next purchasing review with my strong recommendation. The RRP is: $179.00

I recommend this title for the following reasons:

BENEFIT FOR THE LIBRARY: This book will be a valuable addition to the library's collection.

REFERENCE: I will refer to this book for my research/teaching work.

STUDENT REFERRAL: I will regularly refer my students to the book to assist their studies.

OWN AFFILIATION: I am an editor/contributor to this book or another book in the Series (where applicable) and/or on the Editorial Board of the Series, of which this volume is part.