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Paper short abstract

Drawing on the re-emergence of blacksmithing in France, this paper analyses how manual labour becomes a contested ideological and economic issue. Far from being residual, it operates within the interstices of capitalism and serves as a site for competing projections of the futures of work.

Paper long abstract

The predicted disappearance of French blacksmithing did not occur. After a century of decline, it has recently re-emerged under the impetus of a new generation of artisans, already shaped by contrasting ideological appropriations. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, two scenes can be observed. On the first, the figure of the blacksmith is reappropriated by nationalist movements that recast it as a symbol of rootedness, tradition, and strength. Fascination with weapons and the exaltation of Viking imaginaries, detached from their historical contexts, contribute to an “invention of tradition,” in which appeals to the past serve to legitimise contemporary political identities through new mythologies.

On the second scene, young collectives of artisans and ecological movements reframe manual labour within logics of emancipation and cooperation, often articulated through a critique of industrial capitalism. Their attempts to redefine work around autonomy, skill transmission, and ownership of the means of production resonate with a longer history of artisans and small producers who, from the French Revolution to the labour movement, played an active role in political struggles. Between these two scenes, French blacksmithing is being recomposed.

“It is true that when capitalism fares poorly, craftsmanship fares better” (Zarca, 1985). While the futures of work are often imagined through a technological teleology that relegates manual labour to the past, this paper proposes a different perspective by analysing manual labour as an interstitial form of contemporary capitalism. From this standpoint, manual work redefines its material conditions of existence by investing specific economic and symbolic niches.