Artisanal cultures of work and skills transmission provide a useful point of contrast from which to think about the renewed interest in skills development as a formal, institutionalized process of training and certification for discrete and standardized skills. This article traces the transformation of practices of skill in the context of technological change in the artisanal fisheries of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, to explore a set of linked questions about skills and work: How expansively or narrowly should skills be understood? What can we learn from traditional modes of skills transmission? As technology makes redundant many of the traditional skills, are we seeing a ‘degradation’ of work? A focus on fishing, a traditionally caste-bound occupation, also opens up questions regarding the work that skills do within a political economy, both in reproducing a given social order, and in enabling change. In tracing processes of labour recruitment in the mechanized fisheries, the article offers a further reflection, about the extent to which skills matter in securing employment, given the continued importance of networks of caste, kinship and village-based community.

中文翻译：

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工作技能和技能工作：印度手工渔业中的社区、劳动力和技术变革

工作和技能传播的手工艺文化提供了一个有用的对比点，从中可以将技能开发的新兴趣视为对离散和标准化技能的培训和认证的正式、制度化过程。本文追溯了在泰米尔纳德邦 Kanyakumari 手工渔业技术变革背景下技能实践的转变，以探讨一系列有关技能和工作的相关问题：应如何广泛或狭隘地理解技能？我们可以从传统的技能传播模式中学到什么？随着技术使许多传统技能变得多余，我们是否看到了工作的“退化”？对传统上受种姓限制的职业捕鱼的关注也提出了关于技能在政治经济中所做的工作的问题，既要再现特定的社会秩序，又要促成变革。鉴于种姓、亲属关系和以村庄为基础的社区网络的持续重要性，在追踪机械化渔业的劳动力招聘过程中，本文进一步反思了技能在确保就业方面的重要性。