Humanitarian handicraft : History, materiality and trade, c. 1840–1980

Abstract

This book brings together scholars of various horizons, art and craft practitioners, and historians of humanitarianism in dialogue around the material remnants of craft initiatives in the past: the evidence of large and small schemes to sustain people, ideals, and trade networks through the production and consumption of handmade objects. To illustrate the making, selling and collecting of humanitarian handicraft and enable comparative perspectives over a period of 150 years, this book focuses on textiles. Textile work is the most vernacular form of craftwork and the most accessible at a lower initial cost, ; however, the products can also become high-end goods and prized commodities in humanitarian trade networks. This book is part of a wider conversation on material culture, the history of emotions, and haptic sensibilities among historians and textile scholars. In this collection, we treat emotions as historically situated practices, and consider haptic sensibilities in order to draw attention to texture and touch, or ‘the tactility of vision’ according to Deleuze. This volume contributes to a nascent critical approach in humanitarian studies which helps to shift the perspective away from grand institutional narratives and encourage a sensitivity towards gendered and individual responses.