Incorporating craft: An experiment in community ownership in postliberalization India

Abstract

This article traces the efforts of India's largest private retailer of craft-Fabindia-to realize its vision of "inclusive capitalism" by creating a network of "community-owned companies" in which artisan-suppliers own shares. The contradictions and tensions inherent to this corporate project offer a critical vantage from which to examine processes of economic and political change both in India and globally. This ethnography reveals how the proposal to replace the traditional middleperson with a corporate body introduced new complications and conflicting interests throughout the supply chain. The competing efforts to determine the terms and nature of the relationships between supplier-shareholders, the community-owned companies, and Fabindia illuminate the on-the-ground negotiation of corporate social responsibility.