The rusted steel that binds: how craft producers form neolocal economies in Pittsburgh, PA

Abstract

THE RUSTED STEEL THAT BINDS: HOW CRAFT PRODUCERS FORM NEOLOCAL ECONOMIES IN PITTSBURGH, PA by Kevin Baker As many postindustrial cities shift to service and information economies, former manufacturing legacies still persist. In a city like Pittsburgh, PA amidst the developing tech industries, small scale manufacturers and increasingly craft workers adapt traditions of steel production. Regarding a craft revival, cultural geographers have studied the ways local producers add place representations to their goods and interact to form community bonds. Meanwhile, economic geographers, studying clusters and their path dependencies, explain local craft production can derive as a specialized sector from a larger industrial formation. To better understand craft production as both cultural and economic process, this study questioned how craft can contribute to place making and simultaneously be embedded in a local economy. This project thus asked: how do craft producers collaborate to produce neolocal economies in former industrial Pittsburgh? In order to understand how Pittsburgh metal workers went beyond just a craft and strengthened a larger economic network rooted in place, I studied twenty businesses related to metalworking and craft in Pittsburgh by conducting semi-structured interviews, touring workshops, and administering mapping exercises. The research reveals craft businesses DedicationTo my good friend Ed West and everyone who taught me about Pittsburgh's iron.