Super-workshops, antidote to industrialism (?)

Industrialism, which started the social and ecological crisis, is making many of one thing. Often making so many of one thing to be the only supplier for the whole world.

I suggest the antidote to this would be workshops that make one, or a few, of many different things as needed locally.  

I suggest human scale, self-reliant communities should all have one of these workshops, perhaps as shared public property. A really effective workshop to replace industrialism would probably be beyond individuals, though I am not very experienced in metal, plastic, wood, electrical etc workshop technology, so don't know for sure.  

A "super-workshop" perhaps a good word for it, sounds a bit vainglorious maybe but we have "super" markets, none thinks that sounds conceited.

Working in conjunction with local metal and other recycling seem a good idea in theory, though I don't know how practically possible.    

It is an open question how far this can be taken, and it would change over time with innovation if science and engineering started working on the local and "small" rather than selling themselves to the highest, usually biggest, bidder.

Any thoughts?  

   

I believe in doing my best to live a sustainable life and not worry about other problems.

Do what you can to make your life better...

It sounds like it could be a beneficial idea. Sort of like a library, which is a well established institution. There is a library in my region that has a crafts group but it’s a little far for me to go regularly.

I think it would be helpful to have someone who has an analogous role to librarians who manage the space so that it is useful and good for others.

I think there is something like this that someone told me about using, but I don’t remember what it is called.

On the other hand, there is a chance that if people are interested, they may end up seeking already established craftspeople and sharing the space and equipment.

I didn't think to add I think this workshop thing is similar to or a form of permaculture in that a permaculture farm seeks to produce a few of many things,  or a bit of everything, in contrast to an industrial farm which produces many of one thing.

I like this idea.
In particular a facility that has lots of solar power during the day could "store" that power in the form of a manufactured good.
Say you have a facility for juicing and bottling that could juice almost anything and uses standard bottles for everything.
A wood working facility, a distillery, lots of manufacturing consists of machinery that could be used multiple ways.

Right now maker spaces are probably the closest thing to this,but my community garden feels like this as well.
It has the tools for growing that my own grow lot does not, and membership is cheap.

I did not know of marker spaces.

Yeah, maker spaces are crazy cool!
Not only do you get access to machines you otherwise couldn't afford,you are exposed to people who are into similar things.
Similar, but rarely  exactly the same, which leads to a lot of creative interactions.

Maker spaces—that was the thing I had heard about! I had forgotten the name.

Oddly, my experience has too frequently been that I have to convince the local craftsman that they are able to make the product. One example that comes to mind is that I went to a well established welding shop to take a damper made for a wood stove. It consisted of a rectangular piece of steel (maybe 1’ X 2’ X 1/8” with a 2’ rod attached to it.   They acted like I wanted them to build  a 429 hemi from scratch.

But there are positive exceptions. As I type this I do recall working with a young lady with Cerebral Palsy who was confined to an electric wheel chair. The state turned down her request for an expensive ( as in several thousand $) adaption to her chair that she was in serious need of.  I took her, her chair, and a few photos of the device to the local outlaw motorcycle club.  After some discussion one spoke up with “ yea, we can do that.”  The device they built functioned perfectly, looked professional, and they didn’t charge.

Workshop would mean more interesting work than repetitive industrial production line jobs, though industrial jobs have had a monopoly for 200 years, it may be this has favored the reproductive success and proliferation of boring stupid or mentally lazy people who like that, it may be too late.  

I have worked jobs that only existed  because hiring a human at minimum wage was cheaper than building a machine to do the same thing.
That was after becoming a journeyman electrician!
It was a hard time, but I wasn't going to travel and leave my family nor was going to work nonunion, so I worked on assembly line jobs and hated life...


So, I admire anyone who can enjoy an assembly line job but I don't assume they are less capable of being a problem solving craftsman  than I am.
I have to assume that a lot of people who would be better suited to active problem solving than repetitive assembly tasks are stuck in the later due to circumstance.
Society hasn't had that strong an effect on the existence of the genotypes/neurotypes that don't fit in, because in reality life is more "survival of the fit enough" rather than"survival of the fittest".
And that's assuming that creative problem solving is strictly an inborn trait , which is a huge assumption.

By way of example:I can write, but it takes a lot concentration for me to write legibly.
Turns out there's a name for it ,dysgraphia.
Since hand writing was so important in our society, school forced me to learn it.
If I hadn't been required to write in school I wouldn't have picked it up on my own, and I would have missed out on a lot of life.
I'm not at all suited to be a "writer" but being forced to do it anyway really helped me.
Solving problems in a  workshop setting is also a skill, and I bet that people who are not naturally adept at it could learn to do it, even if they never actually like it.

I was kidding basically that industrialism may have caused an explosion of stupid boring people, it could be true to an extent, don't know, I hope not. I read somewhere about industrislism affecting evolution of a fly, it changed color to blend in with soot from memory.

When I worked in a factory they gave the monotonous production line to females, obviously women are not more stupid and boring, I assume they have more self control and tolerance, genetically or from socializing. It may have been dicrimination  My head was done in after 10 hours relieving on the line. My horticulture teacher said only females can do seeding transplanting as a full time job, men usually start throwing things or smashing them.

David Nicholls wrote:I assume they have more self control and tolerance ... My horticulture teacher said only females can do seeding transplanting as a full time job, men usually start throwing things or smashing them.

Yet more evidence that I am in fact male...

Interesting.  

We have several "super workshops" in our town.

There are a few maker houses where people buy a subscription to use all sorts of tools including fancy laser cutters.  Some people make things to sell.  

The make house has closed or is moving this year. It's the sewing equivalent.

Some of the regular book libraries lend tools and space. There are also a few gardening specific libraries like the seed and tool library.

I'll toss the repair cafe in here too because that fits with the idea of sustainability.

Most of the local textile shops have a place where one can come and use the equipment.  

There are several machine shops in town where we can get parts made.  They love projects with problem solving.

One of the local museums is a working museum.  They have an active garden, blacksmith, metal shops, several wood working shops depending on the level of tech you are comfortable with, saw mill, looms, spinning wheels, cream separator, several inspected kitchens (where you can make things to sell and the government don't get sad), auto, tractor, and smalk engine repair... i haven't seen it all and I've been going there for years.  

The problem they have is all the tools, guys and gals who know how to solve just about any problem or build stuff from scratch, lots of materials, usually recycled from things that were beyond repair, very low fees to join...and too few new people finding them.

These super workshops exist already in most towns. The problem is connecting those who are interested with those who are too busy doing stuff to recruit.

If you are interested, start with maker houses and the SCA for a gateway into this world.

The local fall agriculture fair is also a way in.  We have several guilds that show off their skills loke the blacksmith group (not related to the blacksmithery at the museum), and all sorts of people demonstrating what they make.