Learning Craft Skills in C hina: Apprenticeship and Social Capital in an Artisan Community of Practice

This article discusses some of the consequences of collectivization and subsequent privatization of handicraft in C hina in the second half of the 20th century on ways of learning and modes of apprenticeship. It argues that, after the privatization of the ceramics workshops of D ingshu, J iangsu province, an ethos of sharing previously introduced by collectivization continues to determine the paths of transmission of practical knowledge and facilitates exclusion of access to knowledge from community outsiders.