This article presents the handicraft industry in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, treating it as a productive arrangement. Primary data obtained from field work carried out in 2005 by the authors, was combined with secondary data from research carried out by SEBRAE in 2002. The most significant empirical aspects regarding the functioning of this arrangement are constituted by five main elements: the company and entrepreneurs, dynamics of innovation, learning, knowledge and cooperation and, finally, the most significant aspects of its management. The questionnaire developed by Redesist (IE-UFRJ) regarded the activities connected with handicrafts and was given to directly to the “producers”, in accordance with a representative sample. Among the results obtained, the most significant were the relations of family work, a lack of professionalism, a low degree of cooperation, despite innovations with respect to new products.
