Evicted From Eternity_ The Restructuring of Modern Rome - Michael Herzfeld [28]
Surely less necessary, however, was the relentless deskilling of the older artisans, who were displaced by formally trained and bureaucratically crc- dentialed restorers able to command vastly higher prices-twenty-five times as much, in one estimate. Responses vary between despairing surrender and creative adaptation. One carpenter ceased work altogether except to produce occasional and very expensive small items of furniture for wealthy local professionals such as architects and engineers; as a result, he now enjoys a comfortable lifestyle himself. But he is a rare exception. Economic survival is increasingly difficult; most male artisans' wives now take paid jobs rather than assisting their husbands, while the latter are forced to work ever longer hours. Humbler, jobbing artisans have found themselves increasingly squeezed out of work or relegated to the most mechanical tasks, their very status as artisans threatened by the new pressures and concomitantly by the dilution of the once proud designation of artigiano, itself now gentrified beyond the point of no return. Even the various promotional schemes to use the Internet intensify the process of gentrification, producing clusters of more affluent, educated merchant-artisans and virtually eliminating those who lack the skills, finances, or interest to participate.
These less adaptable or skilled artisans, who in an earlier age would have enjoyed both respect and a steady income, have thus found themselves facing a downward spiral of disaster. They must now compete with others holding more bureaucratic credentials, especially as it is now fashionable for well-educated people to take courses in some of the artisanal trades. A real apprentice, one furniture restorer sourly remarked, would learn by observation in the workplace; the widespread idea that an apprentice should "steal with the eyes" is widespread in Italy and indeed in many parts of the world.' The very idea of a formal course, with its panoply of wordy explanations and principles, is anathema to most artisans, whose few remaining apprentices earn too little to afford such an indulgence even if they desire it but must work solely "for the love of the objects.i'
The courses have very small enrollments, often with a quota reserved for foreigners, and, remarked another restorer, applicants must come "highly recommended through political connections or on account of some [instrumental] friendship"-to say nothing of the tuition fees. Participants thus start out from a position of privilege and are generally interested in only the most upscale of the artisanal trades; they are also expensive to hire because they have union-protected salaries based on their formal qualifications, and most older Monti artisans will have nothing to do with them. But it is often from these courses that new restorers emerge, frequently without the benefit of ever having worked with an experienced old-style artisan. Of those few who do manage to get taken on by more experienced artisans, most work illegally (in nero, literally, "in black"~. This further intensifies the competition with which the older artisans must contend.
Arguably, the coup de grace to old-style artisanship, embedded as both production and consumption in community life, was the sudden upturn in rents in the late i98os. Had this not occurred, craftsmen producing window and door frames, for example, might have been able to hold their own against less attractive prefabricated products. When rents started to rise exponentially,