“I Am Who I Am” : The Tactics, Flexibility, and Survival of Young Craftspeople in Ljubljana

Jerkič, Tajda (author), Zavratnik, Veronika (author)

The article focuses on young craftspeople in Ljubljana who work outside of formal institutions, remaining beyond the scope of the new legal framework introduced in 2023. Drawing on ethnographic research, it explores their motivations, digital learning practices, hybrid identities, and their relationship to labour and the market. Particular attention is given to digital platforms, which simultaneously enable access to knowledge, visibility, and networking, while also generating new forms of unpaid labour and the pressure of constant online presence. The article focuses on how informal infrastructures – including peer networks, digital communities, and temporary events – sustain handicraft practices under uncertain and often precarious conditions, without eliminating these conditions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: handicrafts, Ljubljana, young people, labour, creativity, ethnology, anthropology, artistic crafts, precarious work, digitalization, young adults, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Ljubljana (Slovenija)
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.07.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 18 str.
• Numbering: Letn. 4, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185077
• UDC: 39:745/749:004.9
• ISSN on article: 2820-6088
• DOI: 10.4312/svetovi.4.2.49-66
• COBISS.SI-ID: 285646595
• Publication date in RUL: 22.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Svetovi
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2820-6088
• COBISS.SI-ID: 148550403

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: »Sem, kdor sem« : taktike, fleksibilnost in preživetje mladih rokodelk in rokodelcev v Ljubljani

Abstract

Članek obravnava mlade rokodelce v Ljubljani, ki delujejo zunaj formalnih institucij in tako ostajajo zunaj formalnih podpornih mehanizmov, vzpostavljenih z novim zakonom v letu 2023. Na podlagi etnografske raziskave analizira njihove motivacije, učenje veščin s pomočjo digitalnega okolja, hibridne identitete ter odnosa do dela in trga. Posebno pozornost namenja vlogi digitalnih platform, ki hkrati omogočajo dostop do znanja, povezovanje in vidnost, a ustvarjajo tudi nove oblike neplačanega dela in pritisk stalne prisotnosti na spletu. Članek se osredotoča na to, kako neformalne infrastrukture – vrstniške mreže, digitalne skupnosti in priložnostni dogodki – omogočajo ohranjanje rokodelskih praks v negotovih in pogosto prekarnih razmerah, ne da bi te razmere odpravile.

• Keywords: rokodelstvo, Ljubljana, mladi, delo, ustvarjalnost, etnologija, antropologija, umetna obrt, prekarno delo, digitalizacija, mladi odrasli, Ljubljana (Slovenija)

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0187-2022
• Name: Etnološke raziskave kulturnih znanj, praks in oblik socialnosti