Mångfaldsarbetet inom Hemslöjden våren 2016 Tankar om hantverksutövande, behov och identitet

Abstract

The Swedish handicraft movement has a need to increase the diversity within the organization. Also Sweden has welcomed a lot of fugitives the past year due to war in other parts of the world. The new swedes need help being integrated in the Swedish community. These two problems could work together towards a common solution. There has been made three qualitative interviews with people working in the handicraft movement, and two qualitative interviews with craftsmen who have moved to Sweden from other countries. Previous research shows that cultural dimensions of migration is a field worth exploring due to the era of globalization. It also shows that the studies that have been made are mostly about migration and it´s collateral phenomena, rather with the experience of migrants themselves. Therefore, this is an attempt to begin the study of emigrant handicraft and how the migration has changed their ways of practicing handicraft. This essay shows how the Swedish handicraft movement is working with diversity in the spring of 2016 and how the practice of craft has changed for two individuals when they have moved from one country to another. By looking at the interviews from different perspectives the words needs and identity has been identified as keywords and are used as a method to find common ground for the two problems. The main conclusion is that these people all are individuals and can´t be met in the same way. One individual uses handicraft for exploring her identity. The other one could get her need of challenge in her handicraft satisfied by the handicraft movement but the way for here to find the movement is not obvious. Finally, the essay states that the movement has learnt by past mistakes and predicts a bright future for increasing the diversity in the Swedish handicraft movement.