This project involves the dissertation research in Africa of an anthropology graduate student from the University of Pennsylvania. The project will study the relation of social structure to craft organization in two pottery cooperatives in the Ivory Coast. Using a combination of ethnographic methods including participant observation and structured life-history interviews, the student will examine the relationships among economic and social factors such as inheritance and labor processes as well as the tradeoffs between subsistence and cash activities. This research is important because cooperatives, especially craft cooperatives, have long been promoted as a means of African development and have been a highly visible failure. This careful case study will reveal the reasons for differential success and failure and will serve as a resource for planners and scholars studying the role of craft production in development.
