Craftsman - Softcover

Sennett, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141022094 ISBN 13: 9780141022093

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2009

Synopsis

Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? This book, a philosophically-minded enquiry into practical activity of many different kinds past and present, is about what happens when people try to do a good job. It asks us to think about the true meaning of skill in the 'skills society' and argues that pure competition is a poor way to achieve quality work. Sennett suggests, instead, that there is a craftsman in every human being, which can sometimes be enormously motivating and inspiring - and can also in other circumstances make individuals obsessive and frustrated."The Craftsman" shows how history has drawn fault-lines between craftsman and artist, maker and user, technique and expression, practice and theory, and that individuals' pride in their work, as well as modern society in general, suffers from these historical divisions. But the past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working (using tools, acquiring skills, thinking about materials) which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognise this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible.

About this title

From the Author:

A conversation with Richard Sennett

 

Q:  What do you mean by craftsmanship?

A:  Craftsmanship names both the desire for quality and the skill to deliver it. A nurse or a computer programmer can think about his or her skill as a craft to which he or she is committed, just like a potter. In my book I try to show in particular what the traditional realm of artisans, making things by hand, reveals about craftsmanship in this larger sense of doing something well for its own sake.”

 

Q:  Why does craftsmanship matter today?
A:  Most individuals, businesses, and organizations would claim they are driven by the desire to do good quality-work, but you’d be right to be suspicious about this claim. In the book I show how and why many modern institutions produce mediocre work; I show how the education system can provide students only superficial skills and little sense of commitment. Craftsmanship” names more a desire than a reality we know how to put into practice.

 

Q: How does craft relate to art?

A: There is no art without craft, no expression without technique. So, in my book, I focus on the musician practicing scales, the architect working with problems at a building site, the writer cutting excess words from a paragraph. I do not discuss inspiration.

 

Q: The Craftsman is the first book in a trilogy; how do you think about the series?
A: I want to make sense of material things and material culture in a different way than the Marxist writers of the 20th century did. They concentrated on power relations. I want to broaden cultural materialism to include the sensations and puzzles aroused by material things themselves; the ways in which abstract thinking and belief develop through practice and practical activity; the forms of social behavior which emerge from shared physical experience. The trilogy explores the crafting of objects, ritual and religion, and society’s relation to natural resources. I am by conviction a pragmatist and these books are my contribution to the pragmatist tradition in America.

About the Author:

Richard Sennett's previous books include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, Flesh and Stone and Respect. He was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University and Academic Governor and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He has won the Amalfi and Ebert prizes for sociology and in 2006 was awarded the Hegel Prize by the City of Stuttgart.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0141022094
• ISBN 13: 9780141022093
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336