‘I like working with my hands’: performative and embodied nostalgia among post-industrial blacksmiths

Abstract

Using participant observation and interview data, I analyse social processes that surround the craft of blacksmithing and its role in post-industrial capitalist society. This inquiry explicates the role of visual experiences and performances of embodied nostalgia in motivating the embrace of historic craftwork. I present visual documentation alongside qualitative data to illustrate the visual features of embodied nostalgia and document the symbolic stage upon which the modern blacksmith identity is reinforced. Blacksmithing as a profession has been deoccupationalized while conversely evolving into a richly social craft, largely driven by nostalgia and performance. Blacksmithing is physically demanding, time-consuming, costly, and once represented a hard day’s labour; this study offers an examination of why it became an activity people seek out as a weekend hobby. I find that within the community of hobbyist blacksmiths, a prime motivation is the drive to experience and perform embodied nostalgia for observers, either physically present or for a materially and temporally disembodied gaze of online viewers. The performance of embodied nostalgia is predicated on a romanticised – and mildly subversive – invocation of preindustrial social relations and a symbolic temporary seizure of one’s means of production. Ultimately, this study highlights the symbolic meanings expressed in the actions of the post-industrial blacksmithing community, while underscoring an informative case of occupational evolution in the 20^th century.

Acknowledgements

The author is extremely grateful to Dave Snow and Rocio Rosales for the valuable feedback when this project was in development and to Nina Bandelj for the encouragement to pursue blacksmithing as an empirical site for sociological analysis. This work also benefited significantly from the attention and thoughtful comments of the reviewers and editor of Visual Studies. Most importantly, the author is deeply appreciative of the blacksmiths who welcomed him into their community and helped him learn how to shape metal while sharing their ideas, insights, and passions.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

[1] https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/visit/itineraries/diy-ers-makers/

Additional information

Funding

This research was not funded

Notes on contributors

Christopher W. Gibson

Christopher W. Gibson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Fullerton. He received his doctorate from the Department of Sociology at UC Irvine and he also holds an MA in Global Studies from UC Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the intersection of economic markets and social change and public policy. His work touches on a wide range of issues from occupations and crafts to environmental governance and financialization. Chris has published in the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, The Oxford Handbook of Consumption, and the Review of European Studies. He also has forthcoming work in the Routledge Handbook on the Green New Deal.