Paper short abstract

This paper explores the use of craft traditions as a vehicle for community-driven social change in Glasgow, Scotland. I examine the aspirational language used, the quasi-political stance espoused, and the role of seagoing craft and boatbuilding in actualizing these abstract elements.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores the use of craft traditions as a vehicle for community-driven social change and activism in urban Glasgow in southwest Scotland. The GalGael boatbuilding project benefits from a close engagement with tradition of a particular kind: manual craftwork. A number of studies from Jones and Glassie to Crawford and Ingold have explored, hands-on work is a powerful way of learning, but as the GalGael project shows, more than just skills are taught.

Located in Govan, part of urban, socially deprived, post-industrial Glasgow, GalGael was founded with a clear social remit: to give people with drug and other social problems, some with prison sentences in their past, a second chance. Here they can focus on the all-consuming quest of learning a new and challenging skill, diverting them from past patterns through role modelling and cultural engagement, and have a chance to re-start their lives as fully responsible members of society. The explicit aspiration is towards engagement, creativity and social(ist) responsibility.

Using interviews with project organizers and participants, I will examine (1) the aspirational language used by the project; (2) the quasi-political stance espoused; (3) the role of seagoing craft in its ideology; and (4) the role played by the work of boatbuilding itself in actualizing these three abstract elements.