Craft industries and ribbon development: place change along the Colombo-Kandy road, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The research project started in 2019 and by 2020 had completed the in- depth observation and collected the participatory observation data resources too. According to researchers from Moratuwa University, due to the country being locked down for two years periodically due to an unexpected COVID 19 pandemic, the huge economic backwardness that may occur in the country in the future is foreshadowed. As university researchers, conducting research predicting the future is an urgent need. The analysis of this research data revealed that traditional craft industries are a city system that has emerged over time based on geo- political, economic, social and cultural traditions of the country. The researchers explain that it is a local imperative to develop this craft village concept into a broader concept, the creative city concept, through government intervention. It will be a victory for us as researchers if we are able to convince the existing government to start a permanent program to nurture the local economy by combining the creative city concept, a greater concept, with the local tourism industry of the country. It is important to identify the existing craft-associated business model to implement the creative craft city concept. According to UNCTAD 2018, the craft industry is becoming more and more crucial for economic growth in Asian nations, both as a direct export and for destination -specific tourism (Cohen 1995; Gough and Rigg 2012; He and Gabhardt 2013; Saha and Sen 2016).Although the structure and purpose of commercial creative industries in Western cities have been extensively studied (Scott 2010, for example), this information cannot be directly applied to traditional craft industries, especially in other parts 40 of the world where histories, urbanization patterns, and agglomeration dynamics are distinct (Phelps and Wijaya 2020).Craft industries are prevalent in peri-urban cities, villages, and desakota in South and East Asian nations where the lines between urban and rural life converge (McGee 1991; Rigg 1998). They develop in a distinctive morphological pattern known as “craft ribbon development,” which runs along major thoroughfares or roadways (Cohen 1995).