Title: Manual labour in the post-industrial world: a study on shoe craft in St. Petersburg, Russia

Authors: Mikhail Vladimirovich Sinyutin; Yuri Vitalievich Veselov; Ruben Vartanovich Karapetyan

Addresses: Faculty of Sociology, St. Petersburg State University, 7-9 Universitetskaya Emb., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia; Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 25/14 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya Str., St. Petersburg, 190005, Russia ' Faculty of Sociology, St. Petersburg State University, 7-9 Universitetskaya Emb., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia ' Faculty of Sociology, St. Petersburg State University, 7-9 Universitetskaya emb., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia; Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 25/14 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya Str., St. Petersburg, 190005, Russia

Abstract: The article provides the results of sociological study of manual labour in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is focused on a shoemaking, a very conventional craft in the contemporary urban environment. We start with theoretical background and definitions of craft from the standpoints of economics and sociology; then, in order to reveal the impact of industrialisation on manual labour, we trace the history and explain the evolution of shoemaking in Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries; next, we describe in economic terms how this small business of shoemaking is organised nowadays and how it competes with the mid-size business in St. Petersburg; in the discussions, we present the explanatory models of craft's reproduction in contemporary urban environment. The main idea of this article is to reveal the supporting social structures like labour migration or ethnic communities for sustainable reproduction of craft and manual labour in the post-industrial world.

Keywords: manual labour; craft; shoemakers; cobblers; sociological research; post-industrial world; Russia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2020.107801

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2020 Vol.40 No.3, pp.322 - 336

Received: 26 Dec 2017
Accepted: 26 Apr 2018
Published online: 22 Jun 2020 *

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