Rethinking the Creative Economy: Utilizing Participatory Action Research to Develop the Community Economy of Artists and Artisans

Leo Hwang

Artists and artisans have a crucial role in the sustainability of the creative economy. By utilizing a participatory action research approach seeded by the work of J. K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Julie Graham's study of community economies in the Pioneer Valley, The Rethinking the Creative Economy Project demonstrates how a collaborative research methodology can reappropriate development from the exploitation of artists and artisans as a panacea for economically challenged communities and as a tool that can help perform a postcapitalist environment. The project seeks to promote the specific assets and strategies of artists and artisans in ways that will benefit the broader community by providing a thriving cultural milieu in which creative expression is valued and embraced and in which the explicit inclusion of a diverse economy fosters both the possibility and the reality of an improved quality of life.

Suggested citation

Hwang, Leo. 2013. “Rethinking the Creative Economy: Utilizing Participatory Action Research to Develop the
Community Economy of Artists and Artisans,” Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics,
Culture, and Society
, 25(4): 501-517.