Research by Tran Cong Sach (2003) states that Craft Village is a cluster of residential communities living in the same village (hamlet), with one or several occupations formed of a non-agricultural nature and primarily small-scale industry. The income and labor utilization rate of those occupations account for a high proportion of the total income and labor of the village‖.
According to the research of Mai The Hon, Hoang Ngoc Hoa, and Vu Van Phuc (2003), Craft Village is a cluster of people living in a hamlet (village), with one or several occupations separated from agriculture for independent production and business. Income from those occupations accounts for a high proportion of the total product value of the whole village.
From the above concepts of craft villages, it can be observed that the concept of craft villages has gradually changed, no longer limited to the scope of the village, or only agricultural production is the main and there are a few households producing a secondary profession in the village when the farming is idle, but here the concept of craft villages has expanded and gradually changed greatly, that is, craft villages not only have many concentrated production facilities with links in the production process with service departments serving production, solving local labor problems and at the same time contributing to the development of the local economy. The above research results are the basis for the author to have an approach for his thesis research. In summary, the concept of craft villages can be drawn: "Craft villages are places where crafts are concentrated
Crafts are formed in rural areas within a clear geographical area and separated from agriculture, with a class of craftsmen specializing in handicrafts, with a certain technological process and living mainly by that profession and producing handicrafts, these goods have artistic value, the products serve domestic needs and can be exported, there are links in production and business in craft villages.
1.1.2. Concept of traditional craft villages
According to Dinh et al. (2010), "Traditional craft villages are craft villages with a long history of development, one or more handicrafts passed down from generation to generation, and over time they have been preserved and developed. There is concentrated production, many artisans, and a certain technological process. The products are sophisticated, have outstanding aesthetics, contain material and spiritual elements, and become goods with special value on the market."
According to Tran Quoc Vuong (2012), a traditional craft village is a village that still cultivates in a small-scale farming and animal husbandry style, but also has some other side jobs such as pottery, weaving... but has emerged as a traditional, sophisticated craft with a class of professional or semi-professional craftsmen, with a guild (organizational structure), a boss, a leader... and a number of small craftsmen and assistants, who are dedicated, have a certain technological process "born in art, die in art", "one art is mastered, one life is glorious", live mainly by that craft and produce handicrafts, these items have fine art, have become commodity products and have marketing relationships with a market in the surrounding area and with the urban market and are moving forward to expand to the whole country and can be exported abroad, many craft villages exist and develop with an age of hundreds to thousands of years.
According to Tran Minh Yen (2004), Traditional Craft Village is a socio-economic institution in rural areas, composed of village and craft elements, existing in a certain geographical space, many households live mainly on handicrafts and there are socio-economic and cultural connections between them.
Craft villages are often considered as places that produce simple, traditional products, mainly by hand or using very rudimentary production tools and machinery. Therefore, craft villages are often called craft villages, traditional craft villages, or traditional craft villages (Tran, 1996; Bui, 1998).
Through the concepts of traditional craft villages presented above, we can see that traditional craft villages are assessed to have diversity but still have common points such as having a long history of formation, in rural areas and concentrated in specific geographical areas and where many people practice traditional crafts from the time of secondary income to the main source of income of the craft village, this place contains many local cultural values, has connections and forms production relations in the development process up to now.
In summary, according to the author, the concept of traditional craft villages can be drawn specifically as follows: "Traditional craft villages are traditional villages that have existed and developed for a long time, formed in rural areas within a clear geographical area, and the craftsmen of the craft village have
highly specialized, providing the main source of income, living mainly on handicrafts and between them there are connections in production and business, economic, social and cultural relationships".
In fact, recently, the name craft village industrial cluster, craft village industry cluster has been used for craft villages. And this name is often used to describe a certain technical infrastructure area that is built, aiming to gather production and business establishments of craft villages located in residential areas into this industry cluster to stabilize production, solve environmental pollution problems and increase competitiveness for sustainable development of craft villages.
Based on research on craft villages, the author summarizes the development stages of craft villages as follows:
Table 1.1. Summary of development stages of traditional craft villages
The stages
Salient features of the stages | Source of documents | |
Phase 1 (early stage of the craft village) | - Early stage, father to son - A few households - Location usually in village, hamlet - Not yet developed, both agricultural production and job - Products only serve the needs of villages and communes. - Only work when farming is off-season. | - Dinh Xuan Nghiem and colleagues (2010) - Phan Huy Le, (1995). - Dang Kim Chi, (2005). - Pham Con Son, (2004). - Trinh Kim Lien, (2013). - Le Quoc Doanh (2003) - Duong Ba Phuong (2001) - Tran Cong Sach (2003) - Mai The Hon, Hoang Ngoc Hoa, and Vu Van Phuc (2003) - Tran Quoc Vuong (1996) and Bui Van Vuong (1998). |
Phase 2 | - More households are practicing the same profession (through passing on the profession among relatives, family, and clan) - Number of households doing the job increased. - Products are expanded to other areas of the region and other provinces. - This stage still involves both producing handicraft products and farming. |
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Phase 3
- Number of households doing the job increased - No connection yet. - The product has begun to be commercialized on the market but is still limited. - The number of households doing crafts is larger than the number of households doing farming. | |
Phase 4 | - Many households, production facilities, businesses, and specialized production cooperatives appear. - Limited connectivity - Popular products on the market - Number of households doing jobs that have been separated from farming. |
Phase 5 | - The emergence of many large-scale enterprises and production facilities with concentrated labor and capital in geographical areas. - The connection between production facilities and enterprises increases. - Highly commercialized product - Products exported to many countries - High level of specialization in production, main income from occupation and increased product - Many modern machines and equipment are put into commercial production, handmade products are almost non-existent. |
Source: author's synthesis
Through the synthesis of the development stages of traditional craft villages, we see that craft villages have a history of development in many different stages from the beginning to strong development with many types of enterprises and production facilities.
Cooperatives are concentrated in a certain geographical area, with a high level of specialization. Machinery and equipment gradually replace manual production. Craft village products are commercialized in the domestic and export markets, improving the income and living standards of workers in craft villages.
1.1.3. Characteristics of traditional craft villages
According to the research of Le Thi Minh Ly (2003), Craft villages and traditional craft villages have the following characteristics: Existing in rural areas with a clear geographical area, being a place name associated with a community with a long-standing traditional craft that has been passed down and has a strong influence; Having stability in a craft or a number of crafts that are closely related to each other in the process of producing a product; Having a team of highly skilled artisans and workers, with professional secrets passed down to their descendants or future generations. Having a form of organization on the scale of households, cooperatives and can develop into a private enterprise scale; The product has both economic significance to support a part of the population and, more importantly, it carries tangible and intangible values that reflect the history, culture and society related to them. The connection between craftsmen and production facilities in terms of economy, society and culture.
Synthesizing the research inherited from Tran Minh Yen (2004), Tran Doan Kim (2007), Trinh Kim Lien (2013), Tran Quoc Vuong (2012), Vu Quoc Tuan (2011), Vu Ngoc Hoang (2016), Duong Ba Phuong (2001), Dang Kim Chi (2005), and Bach Thi Lan Anh (2010), craft villages have the following specific characteristics:
Firstly, craft villages are mainly in the form of households, traditionally passed down through many generations and developed in rural areas.
Second, the products of the craft village are handmade and specialized with the creativity of the artisans, carrying the cultural soul of the locality with skillful techniques under the hands and minds of the artisans and creating unique features and outstanding identification points for the products.
Third, the main source of raw materials is local to the place where the craft village was formed and developed.
Fourth, the form of household production on a small scale without an organizational structure
tightly organized. Some places develop more forms of Cooperatives, Cooperative Groups, Limited Liability Companies, etc.
Fifth, the consumer market is still small, mainly domestic. However, currently there are some craft villages whose products are exported to many countries around the world.
Through the above studies, we can generally conclude that craft villages have many characteristics and change according to the development of society.
In summary, Craft Villages and Traditional Craft Villages have the following specific characteristics: Long-standing existence associated with local culture in geographical areas where there are businesses/production establishments of craft villages clustering with the same production and business lines; although craft villages have connections, they are very loose, each doing their own thing between business households, cooperatives, and enterprises within the craft village as well as with related entities outside the craft village; Although craft villages have similarities in industry, which is an advantage, craft villages are still weak in terms of competition such as not taking advantage of human resources in similar industries, outdated technology, little innovation, and underdeveloped technical infrastructure; The development of craft villages is closely linked to the process of competition in product design and quality, many unique handicraft products are born. However, it is still spontaneous, without investment support to help innovation and development.
1.1.4. Classification of craft villages
According to research by Huynh Duc Thien (2014) and Duong Ba Phuong (2001), craft villages can be classified in the following main ways:
1.1.4.1. Classification by industry group
The classification by industry group can include: Craft villages producing construction materials such as bricks, tiles, glass; Craft villages processing food, agriculture, forestry and fishery products such as milling, making vermicelli, making rice paper, making wine, cooking sugar, producing fish sauce; Craft villages producing handicrafts such as: stone carving, wood carving, fine art ceramics, lacquer, embroidery, brocade, gold and silver, silk weaving; Craft villages producing and repairing small mechanics: welding, casting bronze, cast iron, aluminum; Craft villages producing common consumer goods such as weaving mats, making hats, weaving fabric, producing paper, weaving baskets ; Craft villages growing trees and trading ornamental plants.
1.1.4.2. Classification by development history
Traditional craft villages: craft villages have appeared for a long time in history and still exist today. Many traditional craft villages have existed for hundreds of years such as: Non Nuoc traditional stone craft village, Bat Trang pottery village, Van Phuc silk village, Phu Vinh bamboo and rattan weaving village, Huong Mac wood craft village, Vong Nguyet silk village, Thach Xa bamboo dragonfly village, Tay Tuu flower village, Ngu Xa bronze casting village, Dinh Cong jewelry village, Chuong My conical hat village, Chang Son fan village, Dao Thuc water puppet village, Quat Dong embroidery and lace village, Dao Xa ethnic musical instrument village, Xuan Lai bamboo village, Dai Lam wine village.
New craft villages: are craft villages that have appeared in recent years. New craft villages are formed due to replication or introduction from other localities. Some new craft villages were born from local policies to create jobs for workers. In some localities, new craft villages have appeared such as: mushroom growing villages, fish farming villages.
In addition to the above classification methods, craft villages can also be classified by the number of occupations, development status, products of the craft village, number of producing households or development time.
1.1.5. The role of craft villages in local economic and social development
Inheriting the studies of Dang Kim Chi (2005), Tran Quoc Vuong (2012), Tran Minh Yen (2004), Huynh Duc Thien (2014) and Duong Ba Phuong (2001), craft villages play a very important role in the socio-economic development of the locality such as: exploiting local human resources, preserving local cultural values, shifting the economic structure towards modernity. Craft villages actively contribute to creating local jobs, because craft villages have the characteristics of manual production and use a lot of labor and diversity, currently in craft villages the main source of income from the production of handicraft products is contributing to enriching households. Besides, craft villages are not only places for producing goods but also preserving local cultural values and developing tourism. Along with development and integration, many craft villages have contributed to increasing the value of goods and exports of the region and locality, contributing to shifting the socio-economic structure and modernizing the countryside.
1.2. Theoretical basis of industry clusters
1.2.1. Concept of industry cluster
Industrial clusters are where small businesses in the same industry cluster together in the same location through external economies of scale, where there is a high level of organization between sellers and buyers, businesses in related industries support each other and will lead to the concentration of these businesses in certain locations, the concentration of many skilled workers in small industrial towns or localities, and large demand are some of the factors that motivate businesses in the same industry to concentrate in a geographical area (Marshall, 1890).
Weber's (1909) study mentioned the industry cluster as follows: "Industries tend to cluster in a certain geographical area to create the most favorable conditions for reducing costs to maximize profits, that is, reducing transportation costs, labor costs, and cluster economies."
Research by Becattini G (1992) states that "An industrial cluster is a socio-territorial entity characterized by the presence of a community of people and a population of businesses in a certain geographical and historical space".
An industrial cluster is a concentration of related enterprises in mutually interacting production processes, often in the same industry or industry sector, located in a geographical area in a locality and with clearly defined boundaries, separate from residential areas (Sforzi, 1992).
Kuchiki (2007) study asserts that ―Industry cluster is a geographical concentration within a country or region of interconnected firms, specialized suppliers, service providers and related organizations in a particular sector‖.
Inheriting the above studies, Michael Porter has built a relatively complete theory of industry clusters and is used by many countries in the world in economic development and improving competitiveness.
Porter's (1998) study states that "An industry cluster is a geographical concentration of interconnected firms and institutions in a particular sector. An industry cluster consists of a series of interconnected industries and the entities that