Making the ‘handmade’ bike and trying to make a living

[pdmtong]

for reasons unknown to me when I first saw this I was able to read more than just the abstract.

Making the ‘handmade’ bike and trying to make a living: market objects, field-configuring events and some limits to market making (https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/tkvbdwF9SpEjBxWDTBhv/full)

ABSTRACT
In line with growing interest in craft and maker economies, I examine the resurgence of handmade bicycle fabricators (“framebuilders”) in the U.S. since the early 2000s. I provide an account of one of the driving elements of this framebuilding renaissance, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, considered as a “field-configuring event” through – and around – which forms of market-making and market object stabilization processes were achieved. I focus in particular on the way in which the “handmade bike” as a market object was stabilized and defined. Expanding on the “markets as practice” literature, I take up a larger concern with how these market-making and field-configuring dynamics connect to the material position of those within the field and their pursuit of livelihood. I find that, paradoxically, the particular successful stabilization of the “handmade” bicycle achieved around the show was difficult to sustain as a business model for many framebuilders.

[Mikej]

Article requires payment to read?

[pbarry]

nvm

[ChainNoise]

$43 to read that? Yeah, no thanks

[yarbsr02]

Can the original author share the full version directly by PM? Would be interesting read if so.

[blakcloud]

I have academic access to journal articles and I downloaded it for myself.

Even though the author has signed away the copyright to the journal, they are entitled to give a Word version to those who ask. The email on the article is brewerbd@jmu.edu. Don't know if he is still there but you can always try.

[yarbsr02]

Good to know. I’ll give it a shot. Thanks.

[likebikes]

can i get a tldr on this?

[andrew+]

I only had time to skim it

It's based on sociology's understanding of markets, which is attuned to how they actually work, the meanings surrounding them, the social construction of their objects/boundaries.

Basically the argument is:

1) Almost all bike frame production involves human labor using tools to make bikes. But we only think of a vanishingly small amount of bike frame production as "handmade." Why?

2) The NAHBS is responsible for creating a stable set of shared meanings establishing what a "handmade bike" is, and what it means to be a handmade bike builder.

3) In doing so, NAHBS allowed for a real market of "handmade bikes" to congeal.

4) It also created a hierarchy of what sorts of bikes/builders are the most valued. This is positively associated with a huge amount of labor.

5) Being a truly "handmade bike" builder in such a market is really hard

There's more to it than this both empirically and theoretically, and it looks like it was based on a lot of work. I rate it 4/5 bananas :banana::banana::banana::banana:

[landshark]

Original author is indeed still around here (hi!) but clearly not checking in often enough to have noticed this until plenty of others have already chimed in!

pdmtong is correct to remember that it *was* a free download, but I think the publisher offers something like 50 (100?) free downloads before it goes to paywall. Shout out to pdmtong as well for sending along some early NAHBS materials that helped me clarify exhibitor attendance a couple of years ago!

That said, I'd be more than happy to send a free pdf file to anyone who wants to take a look for "non-commercial" use (though, hats off to you if you can find a commercial use for such work!)

You can indeed find me at brewerbd@jmu.edu for the article request, or any other correspondence about the project.

If you are interested in the project, currently I'm analyzing the data I have collected from my online Survey of U.S. Framebuilders the past six months and will be giving a seminar/talk at the upcoming Philly Bike Expo providing some preliminary results (https://phillybikeexpo.com/the-survey-of-u-s-framebuilders-preliminary-results/). I was on both Outspoken Cyclist (https://outspokencyclist.com/2019/09/show-471-september-21-2019/) and The Pull (https://redkiteprayer.com/2019/08/the-pull-sociologist-ben-brewer/) in the past month or two talking about the survey and a bit about the larger project, if you are into that sort of thing.

PS - I'd say andrew+ gets it right on the summary!

[andrew+]

Original author is indeed still around here (hi!) but clearly not checking in often enough to have noticed this until plenty of others have already chimed in!



Awesome work.