The British Kit Car Industry

Abstract

This paper explores how some of the ideas emerging from the `cultural turn' in economic geography can help us understand the `world of production' constituted by a revivified artisanal sector - the British kit car industry. It is argued that the sector can be interpreted as a `community of practice' underpinned by an `economy of regard'. Not only are the `consumers' of kit cars a crucial part of the production chain for this unusual commodity but they are tightly bound together with producers in their common interest in the leisure activity of building and often racing kit cars. This requires considerable two-way exchange of knowledge and information and a mutually recognized reciprocity in the sector. While not subverting capitalist norms of economic exchange, the kit car sector serves to further emphasize the diversity of arrangements that can surround economic activity.