“I Choose to be Here”: Tensions between Autonomy and Precarity in Craft Market Vendors’ Work

Abstract

Outdoor markets have emerged as key nodes in cities' attempts to revitalize downtown areas through culture and consumption. However, few studies have investigated urban markets as sites of labor, or explored work conditions from the perspective of vendors themselves. As self-employed creative workers in a seasonal industry, artisan vendors experience various forms of economic insecurity related to precarity inherent to their line of work. This article investigates the experiences of artisan craft vendors in Ottawa's popular ByWard Market. Through interviews with vendors, we explore themes such as artisan identity, relationships in the market, and economic and labor conditions. We argue that although precarity seems to be inherent in the vendors' work conditions, it does not undermine their identities as artisans, in part because of the strong value attached to autonomous, creative work. This attachment may, however, hinder artisan vendors' abilities to organize for structural changes that would mitigate their economic precarity.

The Costs, Benefits and Challenges of Contingency Work in Human Service Agencies

“…Yet increasingly, jobs with higher skill and educational requirements are filled through contingency arrangements, including positions in the human service sector. Some of these are independent consultants or craft artisans; workers for whom the benefits of autonomy and flexibility outweigh the risks of what essentially are self-employment arrangements (Alacovska, 2018;Kovesi & Kern, 2018). Another group, however, may have more in common with the Uber driver or the Amazon delivery person, and that is the fee-for-service contingent professional worker.…”

New trade formations: precarity, pragmatic cosmopolitanism and long‐distance trade in the Caucasus

“…For many traders, trade is not simply a precarious occupation, or a preferred 'way of life' (for example Kovesi and Kern 2018), but also a solution to the precarity they have experienced with other types of work. Many of the small traders involved in trans-Asian commerce, in particular, had once been migrant workers in Azerbaijan, Turkey or Russia.…”

The Artisan Economy and the New Spirit of Capitalism

“…These two positions are reflected in research that more generally seeks to promote the artisan economy (Mullagh et al, 2019), particularly as a local economic development strategy (Heying, 2010) and in critical research that highlights the precarious nature of selfemployment as an artisan (c.f. Littrell et al, 1991;Wilkinson-Weber and Ory DeNicola, 2016;Kovesi and Kern, 2018;Wallace, 2014;Liss-Marino, 2014). The present paper can be situated alongside this emerging critical craft literature and in opposition to positions that promote the artisan economy as a more humane alternative to capitalism.…”