Amresh Panigrahi, Ravi Poovaiah, and Gayatri Menon
Economic growth has caused a widespread scarcity of natural materials. It directly impacts the artisanal community that relies on them. The case study examines artisans who are ivory cravers from Varanasi and Delhi, India, and have an adaptive strategy to navigate—material scarcity, challenges, and sense-making. Further, the study investigates the artisanal adaptive approach to sustaining the craft with alternative materials, preserving their cultural significance and distinctiveness.
A qualitative research approach was adapted to analyse the artisanal subjective experience with a purposeful sampling of master artisans in in-depth interviews. Studying their artefacts in different periods gathered a deep insight into their evolved thinking and approach to craft practice in transitioning times. The content analysis and visual analysis as an approach provided deep knowledge and the theme of adaptation. The study further revealed that artisans use a multi-prong approach and mental model to demonstrate adaptive thinking in material adversity.
The artisan’s approach prioritises situated survival, the craft’s distinctiveness, and significance. The study’s limitation is geographically confined; however, it reveals that the artisan is an active agent within an ecosystem and that their adaptive thinking helps craft its survival and continuity. Furthermore, artisanal survival can benefit culture and strengthen ecosystems—one of the crucial factors in a poly-crisis world.
Systemic approaches bring resilience, adaptive capacity, and rapid response capabilities to mitigate the cascading effects of interconnected global crises. Extending research with artisans and providing strategic support to artisan communities has the potential to positively impact ecosystems.
KEYWORDS: adaptive thinking, traditional craft, material scarcity, poly-crisis world
References
Kant, M. and Kanda, W. (2019). Innovation intermediaries: what does it take to survive over time?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 229, 911-930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.213
Lawrence M, Homer-Dixon T,Janzwood S, Rockstöm J, Renn O, Donges JF(2024). Global polycrisis: the causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement. Global Sustainability 7, e6, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024
PANEL
Amresh Panigrahi, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
https://sites.google.com/nid.edu/amreshpanigrahi/home | amresh@nid.edu
Ravi Poovaiah, Associate, Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay
http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/people/faculty/poovaiah-ravi ravipoovaiah@gmail.com
Gayatri Menon, National Institute of Design,Ahmedabad
gayatri@nid.edu | https://nid.edu/people/detail/gayatri-menon