Duty to Remember: Craft Firms as Custodians of Heritage Craft Persistence
研究手工艺企业如何通过日常守护行为，将继承的知识作为活态实践而非静态历史，从而在变化世界中维持濒危工艺的存续，对奢侈品、高级定制等依赖长期技艺的行业有借鉴意义。
Heritage craft firms face a difficult dilemma: how to act as custodians of fragile traditions while staying viable in a rapidly changing world. This paper explores how such firms sustain endangered crafts by treating inherited knowledge not as static history but as living, working practice. Based on a qualitative multiple-case study of two passementerie (ornamental trimmings) workshops in France and Italy and a blade-grinding firm in France, we show how continuity arises from deliberate, everyday acts of custodianship. “Tangible knowledge” includes historical machines—valued for their versatility, accessible design, and durability—as well as archives that preserve technical memory and design continuity. “Intangible knowledge” involves tacit technical expertise and artistic capabilities transmitted through long-term training and embodied practice. Together, these material and human inheritances sustain both creative renewal and historical continuity. Beyond the context of endangered heritage crafts, these insights offer practical guidance for firms in sectors such as luxury goods, haute cuisine, bespoke manufacturing, and artisanal design—where preserving distinctive capabilities and long-term know-how is essential to sustaining relevance and value.