Questioning The Priority: A Suffering Artisan or a Living being with a Dying Soul §

Created: February 6, 2021 1:30 PM

Research Problem: Are NGO interventions aiming to promote sustainable livelihood improve lives at the cost of creative traditions?

Goal: to determine if industrialization leads to destruction of creativity.

Unit of Analysis: individual (Abdul Jalil)

Research Question:

1). How did NGO intervention benefit artisans financially?

2). How did NGO intervention negatively affect artisans?

3). Which should be the priority, financial stability or craftsmanship and creative mind?

Hypothesis: NGO interventions can help Creative artisans to mass produce their antiquities and financially prosper, but at the cost of losing creativity and ‘artisanship’ that is so highly valued.

Type of Research: qualitative

Methodology:

• Research Design: field research
• Sample: 1 individual
• Sampling Strategy: an individual on field case study

Result:

The organization of Akota helped Abdul Jolil, the artisan, to mass produce his artworks. In return, he was successful with future prospects in mind. However, he feels deep sorry of not being able to nurture his creative mind as before. overall, NGO intervention could bring benefits but also drawbacks, specifically to traditional values. Therefore, in depth analysis must be conducted before such interventions.

Validity: This study does a good job of showing how tradition must also be considered when imposing industrialization. However, its very specific and could not be well generalized for other cases.