Artisan, de l'homme de métier au gestionnaire ?

The idealtypic division of labour in the craft industry is a division of labour by age group implying the common exercise of the job and the control of the whole process of production by the workers of the workshop, may they be employees or bosses. These two follow the same socio-professional trajectory: going through an identical standard of knowledge acquisition, they subscribe to the same model of social success consisting in setting up on one?s own. They are then united by a kind of identifying mirror which constitutes the basis of the craft industry?s regulations. Today, the reality we have been able to observe grows away from this traditional model. Since the 1980s, the legislative and institutional context has indeed evolved, widening the borders of the craft company and taking the brakes off setting up. Thus, the division of labour in the craft industry tends to redefine itself. We can observe a tendency of the activities of production and management to become separate, decreasing, de facto, the common practice of the job between employees and bosses. The way craftsmen are recruited also tends to widen, so that varied socio-professional paths co-exist more and more. Finally, the craft industry that traditionally constituted a sector of social promotion for working-class people also becomes a safety net for reconverted workers coming from the middle classes.