The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work

Trevor H.J. Marchand, Professor of Social Anthropology, SOAS

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/MarchandPursuit

After studying and practicing architecture in Montreal, Ahmedabad and London, I came to social anthropology to gain deeper understanding of the ways that buildings and objects are physically crafted by hand and with natural materials. For nearly three decades now, my anthropological research and publications have focused almost exclusively on craftspeople, apprenticeship and skill learning. During fieldwork, I participate directly as an apprentice and labourer in the craft I am studying, whether it is minaret building in Yemen, mud-brick masonry in Mali, or fine woodworking and furniture making in London’s East End. This blog briefly introduces the background to the latter study and the resulting book, The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work: Craftwork in Twenty-First Century England (Berghahn, November 2021).

My study of woodworking and furniture making was carried out at the celebrated Building Crafts College where I enrolled as a fulltime trainee for two years (2005–2007), and where I returned again to conduct a second study of skill learning and hands-on problem solving at the workbench (2012–2013). In addition to researching “from the inside” as a practicing member of the community, I also recorded formal interviews with fellow trainees, instructors and renowned furniture makers across England, and did archival research in the City of London at the Carpenters’ Company Livery Hall, and in university libraries and digital archives.

My years at the College workbench afforded invaluable first-hand knowledge of the processes of carpentry enskilment, the structure and organisation of training, and the politics of craft. It also allowed me to establish enduring relationships of empathy and trust with fellow woodworkers, which in turn infused my analyses and writing with intimate understanding of their daily lives, learning strategies, challenges and aspirations for a better, more sustainable future. The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work combines engaging ethnography and anthropological analyses with history, philosophy, education studies, cognitive studies and neuroscience, and a passionate agenda to reform schooling and expand popular conceptions of “intelligence” in ways that include the skilled body at work. A driving objective in narrating my unique findings was to write in an accessible and compelling style that resonates with a broad readership worldwide.

Marchand woodworking at the Building Crafts College, 2007

In brief, the book is about the quest for a better way of living. Against the backdrop of an alienating, technologizing and ever-accelerating world of production, The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work tells an intimate story: one about a community of fine woodworkers and furniture makers training at an historic institution in London’s East End during the present “renaissance of craftsmanship.” It is an animated and scholarly account of individual and shared learning experiences, trials, achievements and utopian aspirations that reveal the deep-seated human desire to create with our hands, the persistent longing to find meaningful work, and the struggle to realise dreams. The chapters offer penetrating insights into the rich socio-political history of craftwork in England; the nature of embodied skill and problem solving in design and making; the inextricable connections between our brains, hands and tools; and strategies for reconfiguring skilled practice as we age. In combination, my discoveries and the journeys of my fellow woodworkers speak volumes to the vast field of contemporary craft, as well as to craft’s past and its possible futures in a troubled world.

At the core of the book is a powerful retort to the dehumanising trend of deskilling in the classroom and the workplace. My goal as both scholar and craftsman is to promote not only a global appreciation for the dexterity, creativity and intelligence that lay at the heart of craftwork, but also a progressive revaluation of handwork as a vehicle for individual fulfilment and wellbeing. The book is a manifesto for conferring greater status on craft and for making hands-on learning integral to a rounded education that nurtures muscles, morals and mind. After all, it is with hands and bodies, and not merely words, that we humans communicate, interpret, improvise and negotiate – in a word, craft – our ways of knowing and living in the world. 

Jenn Law – distinguished Canadian printmaker, author, social anthropologist and dear friend – generously created the artwork for the book cover and frontispiece. Her mindful and dexterous creativity exemplifies the true essence of craftwork.

Trevor H. J. Marchand is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London, and recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Rivers Memorial Medal. He studied architecture (McGill), received a PhD in anthropology (SOAS), and qualified as a fine woodworker at London’s Building Crafts College. Marchand has conducted fieldwork with craftspeople around the world and published extensively, including the books Minaret Building and Apprenticeship in Yemen (2001), multi-award-winning The Masons of Djenné (2009), and Craftwork as Problem Solving (2016). He is an honorary member of the European Federation for Architectural Heritage Skills (FEMP), a College of Fellows Lecturer for Architectural Preservation Technology International (APTi), Trustee of the Paul Oliver Vernacular Architecture Library (POVAL) at Oxford Brookes, and an advisor to ICOMOS and member of its World Heritage Panel.