History of Modern Crafts: Counterculture Movement

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Questions and Answers

What is the counter-culture movement against?

Pleasurable and meaningful work

Exchange and collective management of goods and services

Human-scale production and self-production

Capitalistic commodification and consumerism (correct)

What is the counter-culture movement for regarding work?

Pleasurable, meaningful, dignified, self-determined, creative, and useful work (correct)

Alienating work and subordination to big corporations

Competition and profit-driven work

Large-scale production and industrialization

What is a criticism of the counter-culture movement?

It focuses on lifestyle changes and individual freedom rather than political engagement and social justice activism (correct)

It values competition and profit-driven work

It advocates for large-scale production and industrialization

It promotes sustainability and self-sufficiency

What is an example of an alternative economic system that has become mainstream?

Food cooperatives Signup and view all the answers

What is a result of the counter-culture movement's impact on today's economies of sharing and collaboration?

The creation of Wikipedia and open-source software and hardware Signup and view all the answers

What is the counter-culture movement against regarding the environment?

Environmental exploitation and destruction Signup and view all the answers

What is a value of the counter-culture movement?

Communitarianism and collaboration Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of an alternative lifestyle that has been promoted by the counter-culture movement?

Permaculture and community gardens Signup and view all the answers

Who coined the term 'counterculture' in the 1960s?

Milton Yinger Signup and view all the answers

What is the dominant culture, also referred to as the majority culture?

The culture of those in power who control and endorse certain values Signup and view all the answers

What characterizes a countercultural movement?

Direct political opposition to the dominant culture Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of a group that is usually not considered part of the majority culture?

Women in the United States Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of a subculture?

Focusing on a niche element without opposing mainstream values Signup and view all the answers

What is the key difference between counterculture and subculture?

Counterculture exists in opposition to the dominant culture, while subculture exists within the mainstream culture Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary characteristic of the majority culture in the United States?

White male-centered Signup and view all the answers

What is a manifestation of counterculture in the United States?

The creation of alternative realities that retreat from mainstream culture Signup and view all the answers

What is the DIY ethos characterized as?

A set of beliefs that can be found in various countercultural movements Signup and view all the answers

What is the main goal of the hippie counterculture?

To reject societal expectations and construct alternatives in the micro space of their everyday lives and communities Signup and view all the answers

What is the 'personal is political' slogan associated with?

The feminist second wave movement Signup and view all the answers

What was the focus of the back to the land movement?

Migration from urban to rural areas to engage in self-sufficient and autonomous practices Signup and view all the answers

What was a key feature of the countercultural practices of the 1960s-70s?

The practice of DIY and DIT Signup and view all the answers

What was the American Arts and Crafts movement focused on?

The creation of arts and crafts societies, schools, training programs, and magazines Signup and view all the answers

What was the main goal of the socialist, communist, and anarchist colonies and cooperatives?

To promote 'producerism' and 'distributism' visions and ideals Signup and view all the answers

What was the role of magazines in the countercultural movement?

To share and spread knowledge among countercultural practitioners Signup and view all the answers

What was the relationship between the hippie counterculture and the DIY ethos?

The DIY ethos was a key aspect of the hippie counterculture Signup and view all the answers

What was the scope of the DIY ethos in terms of the number of people practicing it?

A large and diverse number of people, both individuals and groups Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Counterculture and Dominant Culture

The term "counterculture" was coined by sociologist Milton Yinger in the 1960s and refers to a culture that opposes the dominant culture's values and norms.
The dominant culture is not necessarily the culture of the majority population, but rather the culture of those in power who control and disseminate certain values through media, education, government policies, and social institutions.

Counterculture vs Subculture

Counterculture exists in opposition to the dominant culture, while subculture is a subset of the dominant culture that focuses on a niche element without opposing mainstream values.
Subcultures exist within the dominant culture without aiming to disrupt its organization, values, or societal structure.

Hippie Counterculture

The hippie movement emerged in the United States and spread globally, with impacts lasting until today.
Hippies opposed certain values of the dominant culture and created alternative ways of living and working, strongly intertwined with ideas of craftsmanship and DIY practices.

DIY Ethos

DIY (doing it yourself) is a movement comprised of ordinary people who build or repair daily items without the aid of experts.
DIY is practiced by a large and diverse number of people, both individuals and groups, with different intentions and goals, which can be political or not.

Personal is Political

The DIY ethos within the hippie movement is related to the slogan "the personal is political," which suggests that personal actions and choices have wider social and political implications.
This idea is also associated with the second-wave feminist movement, which aimed to understand how personal experiences were tied to socially imposed expectations and structures.

Historical Context

The 1890s-1920s saw the American Arts and Crafts movement, with the creation of arts and crafts societies, schools, and utopian communities.
The early 1900s saw the establishment of socialist, communist, and anarchist colonies and cooperatives.
The 1910s, 1930s, and 1970s saw the back-to-the-land movement, characterized by a migration from urban to rural areas to engage in self-sufficient and autonomous practices.
The 1970s saw the expansion of the environmental movement, feminist movement, New Age spiritualities, and the rediscovery of regional and indigenous identities.

Hippie Counterculture Practices

DIY (do-it-yourself)
DIT (do-it-together)
Practices of care and repair
Countercultural practitioners grew their own food, built their own houses, spun and sewed their own clothes, repaired their own cars, and even gave birth and taught their children at home.
They shared and spread their knowledge in magazines, etc. (e.g., Whole Earth catalogue)

Against and For

Against:
- Capitalistic commodification and consumerism
- Large-scale production
- Alienating work
- Subordination to and dependence on big corporations and employment
- Individualism
- Competition and profit-driven
- Knowledge and resource control and monopoly
- Environmental exploitation and destruction
- “Ready-made”, industrial and prescribed lives
For:
- Exchange, and collective management of goods and services
- Human-scale production, self-production
- Pleasurable, meaningful, dignified, self-determined, creative, and useful work
- Autonomy, self-competence, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency
- Communitarianism and collaboration
- Solidarity and social contribution and responsibility-driven
- Knowledge and resource sharing
- Sustainability
- “Handmade lives” and alternative lifestyles

Criticisms and Legacy

Criticisms of the hippie movement include:
- Reproduction of gender roles and stereotypes
- Co-optation by capitalism
- Focus on lifestyle changes and individual freedom rather than political engagement and social justice activism
- Romanticization of scarcity and poverty
- Rebels without a purpose
- Utopianism dreaming that had no real-world impacts
Legacy of the hippie movement includes:
- Creation of alternative and localized economic systems
- Impact on today's economies of sharing and collaboration, such as Wikipedia, open-source software and hardware, tool lending libraries, and more.

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Description

Explore the intersections between craft, DIY, and the hippie countercultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. Learn about the term 'counterculture' and its impact on society.