Vous consultezL’artisanat, figure anticipatrice d’un nouvel entrepreneuriat

The entrepreneur is the positive element of capitalism today. Despite the work of traditional trades institutions which promote the entrepreneurial dimension, artisans are generally not considered as innovative managers. Due to the strong link between artisans and their local community, traditional crafts are often seen as backward and ill-adapted to the global market. Nonetheless, working on the different dimensions of the concept of proximity, this article studies how this link between an artisan and the local community somehow characterizes new trends in the changes production systems, and represents “the new spirit of capitalism” (Boltanski et Chiapello, 1999). This particular relationship between the artisan and the community, the specific kind of management, marketing and new forms of organization has transformed these artisans into entrepreneurs and an anticipating figure of the new entrepreneurship. At the same time, the evolution of the models of production and management adopted by firms has somehow imposed the need to change.