This week in community building — Issue 106

Degrowth as an aspiration

By Ana Andjelic

Community-fication. In mass production, efficiency requires short-term, impersonal interactions. I recently heard that many independent dentists are going out of business because of dental networks. Dental networks lower the cost of service by giving their customers one-stop-shop and convenience of access. Mass retailers inched independent retailers out based on the same principle. In craft production, the act of making involves an entire community of tradesmen, artisans, farmers, workers. A handcrafted object is usually the beginning of a long-term connection between people who source materials, work on objects, and sell them (some of the Hermès artisans and even corporate employees have spent their entire work life with the company). Consumers are also more willing to spend a premium on handcrafted items. This is due both to the items’ quality and to items being enriched by everyone who touched them: the community that surrounds each handcrafted item.