Global Markets and Local Crafts: Thailand and Costa Rica Compared

204 Pages·2008·1.33 MB·English

by  Frederick F. Wherry

Global Markets and Local Crafts
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Global Markets and Local Crafts
Thailand and Costa Rica Compared
frederick f. wherry
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2008 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2008
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wherry, Frederick F.
Global markets and local crafts : Thailand and Costa Rica compared /
Frederick F. Wherry.
p. cm. — (Johns Hopkins studies in globalization)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8018-8794-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8018-8794-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Handicraft industries—Thailand. 2. Handicraft industries—Costa Rica.
3. Export marketing—Management. 4. International business
enterprises—Marketing. I. Title.
HD9999.H363T58 2008
338.4(cid:1)77455—dc22
2007033663
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more
information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or
[email protected].
For Charlie and Peggy, my parents
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Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction: Making Culture or Making Work? 1
2 The Frames and Forces of the Market 18
3 Same Local Traditions, Different Frames 48
4 The Flows of Production 73
5 Framing Authenticity 109
6 Conclusion: The Three Fs of Globalization 133
Appendix: Study Design 153
References 167
Index 177
Photographs appear following page 108.
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Preface
Despite the predictions of doomsayers, the global market has not smashed
the artisan’s workbench. On the contrary, the artisan has acquired a cultural ca-
chet, fetching a price and a place in the global market. Whereas artisans once
were an endangered species, they now have begun to propagate apprentices.
The consumption of their handiwork has found demand among consumers
seeking products that represent different cultural traditions and local histories.
Rich cultures and the local industries they inspire hold great promise for coun-
tries and communities unable to compete in the market for cheap labor. Such
countries as Thailand and Costa Rica have therefore found within their socio-
cultural heritage the source of their own global competitiveness. Although global
capitalism has increased competition in the low-cost labor market, the creative
industries that have surfaced from the currents of capitalist destruction have
opened new pathways from the economic periphery toward the global core. The
kernel of this development is not the factory but the fantasy of the authentic,
the unadulterated, and the exotic, which draw international tourists and corpo-
rate buyers into villages and communities across the globe in order to experi-
ence the real and to source the nearly lost. In this way, globalization revives
economies and thrives as a means of trading culture and cultural symbols. As
artisans and buyers mark distinctions between what is authentic and what not,
between the singular and the mass-produced, they sometimes infuse their com-
mercial market transactions with information on relations of exchange using
specialized media, as Viviana Zelizer predicted. Examination of how artisans
produce their handcrafted objects within circuits of commerce, as well as the
distribution of these objects through such circuits, shows the pitfalls and pos-
sibilities for making cultural traditions work to the advantage of local produc-
ers in the global marketplace.
This book is about the narratives and rituals that generate the allure held by
local cultural industries in Southeast Asia and Central America. What one usu-