Carving a Niche: Artisans in a Global Economy

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impacts of globalization and neoliberal reforms through a political ecology and commodity chain analysis of the artisanal production of pine furniture. Arguing that a commodity chain framework can play a central role in geographic inquiries surrounding the political economy of production and consumption, it illustrates the ways in which a careful attention to place and local histories can enrich commodity chain analysis itself. At the same time, integrating commodity chain analysis with political ecology offers one potential way out of the language of scale and its associated vertical hierarchies. Such an approach can highlight the agency of local actors and the importance of the environment, heretofore missing in commodity chain analyses. Furthermore, it expands the realm of political ecology and calls for a more explicit attention to the role of artisans in human-environment relations