Repurposing Professional User Identities in the Formation of Craft Collectives
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2026-07-09
Author(s)
Abstract
How do professional users who enter production construct a collective producer identity? This study examines independent cymbal smiths, a community of small-scale handmade cymbal makers that emerged largely from jazz and experimental drumming communities. Drawing on an inductive qualitative analysis of public interviews, archival materials, and digital ethnographic data, I introduce repurposing to explain how actors redirect meanings, dispositions, and competencies developed in one role toward the formation of another. I show that independent cymbal smiths repurposed their prior identities as drummers through two interrelated mechanisms. Through recasting identity templates, they translated the drummer’s search for individual sound into producer distinctiveness and extended peer generosity into producer collaboration. Through recontextualizing practice competencies, they redirected sensitivity to sound, embodied playing experience, and user-based evaluation into craft learning, adaptive production, and product quality assessment. These findings contribute to collective identity research by explaining how the content of producer collective identities can originate in adjacent practice communities, and to craft and user entrepreneurship by showing how professional users can transform user-based meanings and competencies into shared foundations for craft production.
Language
English (United States)
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
42nd EGOS online Colloquium
Event Location
Bergamo, Italy
Event Date
8-11 July 2026
Subject(s)
Division(s)