Search results

The rural jewellery artisans of Ranthali, a remote village in Assam, India, famous for its traditional gold jewellery craftsmaking, had been facing a dwindling business for several decades, inspite of such craftsmanship being a flourishing rural industry of the region till the 18th & 19th century. In the year 2010, under the MSE-CDP scheme, livelihood interventions were made through clustering these artisans, in an effort to revive them and make them economically sustainable. This research paper presents an analysis of a study conducted amongst the artisans of Ranthali to assess (a) whether cluster interventions helped enhance artisans' livelihood and income using the livelihood model 'The Coolie's Framework' and; (b)whether sustainable economic outcome has been achieved. The study relied mostly on primary data sources collected on the field. It concludes that though clustering for economic growth has several challenges, however, with a holistic approach and continuous multiple interventions over several years, certain successful changes were made. In the case of Ranthali, today, 300 artisans are into jewellery making as their primary occupation from the previous number of 150 & the ecosystem created has helped all 300 artisans to have their own household units with 20 of them having formal registered units. Keywords: Clusters, Traditional Artisans, Sustainability, Holistic Approach, Ecosystem

Using Acker's concept of 'inequality regimes', this article examines the practices and processes of gender inequality in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, highlighting the complex and subtle nature of discrimination sometimes at play and the strategies used by those who progress within this context. The project involved in-depth interviews during which participants recounted their career stories. Our research study examines the ways in which men and women in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter account for their careers in order to examine the underlying gender regimes that influence the everyday practices of workers in this context. Our findings suggest that contrary to contemporary images of the creative industries, jewellery making remains deeply traditional with structures and processes that both overtly and covertly disadvantage women workers. Empirically, this article enhances our understanding of the way that this creative cluster operates and examines how that disadvantages particular groups of workers. Theoretically, this article contributes to our knowledge of the use of the concept of gender regimes at a cluster level.

The restructuring of world economies in the 1980s and the 1990s has given rise to debates around globalisation, feminisation and flexibility. In the light of these macroeconomic debates, this article analyses the relationship of feminisation and masculinisation to flexibility in the microeconomic context of jewellery production in the Noida Export Processing Zone (NEPZ) and Delhi. It compares 'flexibility' in the handmade jewellery sector, which is largely informal, to machine-made jewellery, which is quasi-formal. Most debates on flexibility focus on the supply side and the removal of 'institiutional rigidities' that prevent the functioning of free market forces. These debates focus on the issues of organisational flexibility, labour market flexibility and functional flexibility of the entrepreneur. This study goes beyond the employer–worker dyad to examine 'flexibility' for the intermediate actors involved in production. In the handmade jewellery sector in both Delhi and NEPZ, labour market flexibility is occurring with a largely masculinised labour force. In machine-made jewellery, there is a slight feminisation of flexible status but it is not marked. The gendered division of labour, thus, is only a small part of what flexibility constitutes, if at all.

Abstract
Given the growing importance of ethnicity in America and the unique nature of diamonds, this study formally asked whether an ethnicity effect exists in diamond jewellery attribute preferences (shape, cut, colour, clarity, weight, type, treatment, venue, certification, willingness to spend and origin of the diamond) and, if it does, what differences and similarities have been expressed by the key ethnic consumer groups in America. Survey data were analysed through profile analysis and Tukey's HSD to determine whether ethnic differences exist in diamond jewellery consumption among African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Caucasians, Hispanics/Latinos, Middle Easterners and Native Americans. Study results suggest that there is an ethnicity effect associated with diamond jewellery attribute preferences. Ultimately, this study will allow the diamond industry to effectively reach specific end-use consumers.

AbstractIn many parts of the world, people access consumer goods mainly via informal economic networks. In this article, I analyse the governance of petty commodity chains through a case study of Chinese fashion jewellery produced for the Ghanaian market. 'Petty commodity chains' denotes a particular type of global value chain, where production, trade, and distribution are carried out by small, unregistered businesses, between which personalized relationships and informal infrastructure enable transactions. These chains are neither controlled by lead firms at the production or distribution ends, nor made up of pure market linkages. Weak formal institutions and an intensely competitive commercial environment encourage business actors to establish enduring relationships. Credit relations run through long stretches of the chain and create mutual dependencies. The concept of 'beholden value chains' is introduced to describe the co‐dependency between business actors and the coordination of activities in petty commodity chains.

In the context of declining women's participation in the formal economy in India, this article looks at how women's work in the informal sector of jewellery-making emerges as a gift. Gendered discourses on work turn men, who worked as labourers, into supervisors who monitor and control work situations and sort and grade final products in jewellery workshops. Following Anna Tsing, I argue that jewellery products start their lives as gifts but as they move from women (who are seen as housewives and family members) to men (who are seen as professionals/experts within the workshop) and beyond, they become commodities. This journey from gift to commodity within the workshop is made possible by a gendered discourse on work and by the dynamics within small landholding middle-caste households. Further, I underscore that women's informal networks often help them cope with the emotional and affective tensions of work and the demands imposed on them by the men and their own households. Women facilitate the transition from gift to commodity by colluding amongst themselves to work in these informal spaces to maintain household status within peri-urban villages of West Bengal.

Lindsay Allason-Jones has been at the forefront of small finds and Roman frontier research for 40 years in a career focussed on, but not exclusive to, the north of Britain, encompassing an enormous range of object types and subject areas. Divided into thematic sections the contributions presented here to celebrate her many achievements all represent at least one aspect of Lindsay's research interests. These encompass social and industrial aspects of northern frontier forts; new insights into inscribed and sculptural stones specific to military communities; religious, cultural and economic connotations of Roman armour finds; the economic and ideological penetration of romanitas in the frontiers as reflected by individual objects and classes of finds; evidence of trans-frontier interactions and invisible people; the role of John Clayton in the exploration and preservation of Hadrian's Wall and its material culture; the detailed consideration of individual objects of significant interest; and a discussion of the widespread occurrence of mice in Roman art.

Lindsay Allason-Jones has been at the forefront of small finds and Roman frontier research for 40 years in a career focussed on, but not exclusive to, the north of Britain, encompassing an enormous range of object types and subject areas. Divided into thematic sections the contributions presented here to celebrate her many achievements all represent at least one aspect of Lindsay's research interests. These encompass social and industrial aspects of northern frontier forts; new insights into inscribed and sculptural stones specific to military communities; religious, cultural and economic connotations of Roman armour finds; the economic and ideological penetration of romanitas in the frontiers as reflected by individual objects and classes of finds; evidence of trans-frontier interactions and invisible people; the role of John Clayton in the exploration and preservation of Hadrian's Wall and its material culture; the detailed consideration of individual objects of significant interest; and a discussion of the widespread occurrence of mice in Roman art.