Overview

How can human flourishing arise from what the poet Mary Oliver called 'good work/ongoing'? In its attentiveness to the material, form and purpose of distinct, well-made things, craft epitomizes good work. In its disciplined, quiet giving over to the repetitions of tradition, craft is ongoing. Perhaps more than any other practice, craft work reveals the intimacy between a manifest sense of self and the imperative of its common expression. In a world broken into shuttered units, each separated from the other for the purpose of measured comparison and control, Robin Holt argues that craft work can produce the unassigned remainder that refuses being broken up: it generates its own sufficiency and joy.

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9781009165815

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Reviews

'In dialogue with John Ruskin and other intellectual figures, Robin Holt offers a powerful reappraisal of craft as a source of ethical and aesthetic renewal. Craft Work is a sharp and timely intervention in the way we think about work, technology, and creativity in the twenty-first century.' Clemens Apprich, Head of the Department of Media Theory and the Peter Weibel Research Institute for Digital Cultures, University of Applied Arts in Vienna 'Richly researched and dazzling in its range, this book is an exhilarating vindication of the potential of craft work to transform our lives.' Dinah Birch, University of Liverpool 'A vital and wide-ranging argument for the integrity – in all senses of the word – of craft in a world where the concept is frequently invoked but rarely interrogated. It puts together an interesting and sometimes unexpected array of ideas in dialogue as it dances across time and space. I particularly enjoyed the fresh perspectives that Holt brings to William Morris.' Róisín Inglesby, Curator, William Morris Gallery 'Holt invites readers to dive with him into the swirling processes that constitute work done well, work animating lives lived well, entwined with nature's materiality. He offers meticulous microanalyses, not of abstract creativity, but of actual labor – of minds, bodies, tools and materials in motion, then at rest. Utterly compelling.' Phil Scranton, Rutgers University 'Craft Work is an elegantly written and intellectually rich exploration of the age-old question: what is craft, and what is not? With scholarly grace and narrative subtlety, Robin Holt does not so much declare an answer as reveal it – showing rather than telling. In doing so, he not only redefines our understanding of the essence of craft but quietly revives the lost art of true scholarship.' Roy Suddaby, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, Canada and Carson College of Business, Washington State University, USA

Author Information

Robin Holt is Professor of Strategy and Aesthetics at the University of Bristol, and Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University, from where he investigates the nature of organizational form. Working in Scandinavia, the UK and Japan, he has studied the emergence of new organizations like entrepreneurial ventures; the shaping of organizations through strategic practice; and in this, his latest work, the intimacy between organizational form, work practice, ethics and aesthetics. He has written and edited 10 books, including The Poverty of Strategy with Mike Zundel (Cambridge, 2023) and Strategy Without Design with Robert Chia (Cambridge, 2009), and Organization as Time with François-Xavier de Vaujany and Albane Grandazzi (Cambridge, 2023).

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