Consumption for social sustainability and poverty alleviation

This chapter focuses on social sustainable consumption as a means of poverty alleviation in Indigenous communities through the development of Indigenous venture creation and product development for social innovation in the context of Indigenous crafting. Because the crafting of cultural goods and ethnic arts continues to be a stable means for making a living within many Indigenous communities throughout the world it is important to understand how crafting can be an avenue towards sustainable consumption. An analysis of the relationships between Indigenous crafting, Indigenous community life, sustainable agency, Indigenous concepts of wellbeing, and sustainable entrepreneurship is needed. Through a brief literature review and an in-depth ethnographic case study on the Indigenous Mazahua artisan communities, supported by semi-structured interviews, asset mapping surveys, and ethnographic observation, this chapter examines how the act of Indigenous crafting as carried out by individual artisans within Indigenous communities link with forms of capital and how these aspects of community life intersect with sustainable forms of agency, Indigenous concepts of wellbeing, and small-scale social entrepreneurial activities centred around Indigenous crafting in a bid to indigenise the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship and to understand how crafting can apply to sustainable consumption and poverty alleviation.