ABSTRACT
In the context of advanced industrial societies, artisans have only exceptionally been treated separately in the literature. This is undoubtedly related to the fact that of the various petit bourgeois strata, they are the one to have survived least. The dearth of material directly relevant to them creates a serious problem in their sociological study, especially since the internationalisation of sociology has meant the transference and utilisation of Western theories, concepts and analytical tools to analyses of nonWestern societies. In consequence there is practically nothing available in perspectives and analytical tools that is directly relevant to the sociology of artisans in the advanced societies and which could be applied to the analysis of artisans in a country of the periphery or the semi-periphery, or would provide a foundation to build on.
