Artisanat is neither a remnant of the past nor a nursery for tomorrow's firms, it is considered here as something specific with its own economic behaviour. Its coexistence with industry then appears in a different light. Both have to face market risk and uncertainty, but artisans cover those tasks for which the work process is autonomous and discontinuous and production means are limited. Industry handles coordinated work processes and more cumbersome means of production. So both types of activities are rather complementary and the frontier between them shifts constantly as ways of life and technologies change. This marks the limits of the expansion of capitalism in our societies.
