American crafts shows: price or style conscious?

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a classification for the process by which crafters find appropriate consumers in the post‐modern market structure that exists between black or gray markets where illegal or illegally obtained goods are sold, and the markets that serve the Fordist, mass‐production, mass‐distribution portion of an economy.

Design/methodology/approach

Principally the research was done via personal interviews and visits to craft show sites and comparing the findings to the existing street‐market structures of Europe.

Findings

The institutions that have evolved to support market segregation/segmentation in crafts markets are interesting and are better understood within a classification system like the one developed here. How these institutions differ from the street‐market culture of Europe lends an insight into this uniquely American post‐modern market system.

Research limitations/implications

This study is the beginning of a larger body of work that should be undertaken to better comprehend how the increasing post‐modern market structure is interacting with and occasionally replacing, the traditional market structures in the USA.

Practical implications

As the post‐modern market structure becomes more prevalent in the USA understanding how it is similar to and differs from, the comparable market structures in Europe is important to policy decisions on the local level, particularly with respect to local support of this type of market.

Originality/value

This work extends earlier work looking at farmers’ markets into the crafts market environment. As such it brings the overall understanding of the post‐modern market structure in to more clear focus.

Citation

Tiemann, T.K. and Barbour, J.L. (2006), "American crafts shows: price or style conscious?", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 26 No. 7/8, pp. 342-352. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443330610680425