Crafting Authenticity: Anthropological Implications of the Craft Beer Movement in Bethnal Green.

Brief Outline

In my previous year of study, I carried out a short research project into the circulation of craft beer in Canterbury and Margate. Using Paige West’s monograph as a conceptual framework, I found that the the popularity of craft beer as a product and a social past-time, could be percieved as a reaction against the globalisation and corruption of the international commodity chain. Craft beer is a product that is often produced, distributed and consumed all on the same site, this ‘extreme-localisation’ goes someway to explain the popularity of the movement.

During my fieldwork, one theme that appeared throughout my interviews with consumers and distributors was that the consumption of craft beer was an ethical and social choice in conflict with multi-national alcohol conglomerates such as Heineken. The idea that craft beer provided an ‘authentic’ alternative, and that the sites of micro-breweries and tap rooms were more ‘real’ than other local bars came up in almost every conversation I had.

Therefore, the opportunity to carrry out an extended research project provides the free to delve into the anthropology of authenticity, and the social world that has been constructed around this industry.

The ideal fieldsite is the surroundings of Bethnal Green tube station in East London. Up until recently, it has been left relatively untouched by the wave of breweries and and craft beer bars that has swept across East London. I have established connections with the Old Street Brewery. A start-up that began in the early part of 2018, they are a group of former bartenders of most popular bar in the district and one of the key distributors of craft beer in the city, Mother Kelly’s. I would be able to undertake fieldwork as a bartender, brewer and it would also be possible to conduct interviews with those that have shaped the craft beer industry.

I think the industry is of particular anthropological interest in that the vast majority of participants are part of the 'millennial' generation, and analysing the economic and business practices of this industry would allow substantial reflections on anthropological theories of exchange, community and class for the younger generations.

My main goal would be to contribute to the anthropological knowledge of authenticity. I believe the rush of popularity in craft beer and the huge rise in the number of breweries and start-ups in the industry marks a reclamation of control by both consumers and entrepreneurs. A control over the ingredients, origin, business practices and distribution of a product, fosters at least a perception of a more 'authentic' lifestyle. I would carry out analysis over what consititutes a more authentic lifestyle from the perspective of all the main players in the commodity chain.

Bibliography

There will be three initial strands to my research in to the current academia related to my project. Firstly I will carry out research into the anthroplogy of food, in western and non-western societies. Although not outright studies of authenticity, these monographs and collected articles will give me a perspective on the attitudes and motivations towards consuming products.

1.

From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of Coffee from
Papua New Guinea. Paige West. 2012.

West’s exploration of consumer ‘fantasies’ as to the origins and meaning behind fair-trade coffee contains parallels that can be made to my potential fieldwork. West’s analysis of the commodity chain across the world, from the production, distribution and consumption of coffee, would be something I am able to do within the same fieldsite in terms of craft beer.

Ethical Eating in the Postsocialist and Socialist World
edited by Yuson Jung, Jakob A. Klein, Melissa L. Caldwell. 2016.

Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat By David Bell, Gill Valentine 1996.

Craft vs. industrial: Habits, attitudes and motivations towards beer consumption in Mexico.
Carlos Gómez-Corona. 2016.

The above collections will give me an insight into the the range of attitudes and choices individuals and communities make when choosing what they consume, and will perhaps inform me of the reasons behind the success of the craft beer movement. Chapters on the shift in popularity towards local or ‘artisanal/heritage’ products are of particualr interest.

The second strand of my research will focus on the more established academics and their insights into the concept of authenticity.

The Anthropology of Authenticity. Richard Handler. 2001.

Exoticisation Undressed: Ethnographic Nostalgia and Authenticity in Emberá Clothes. Dimitrios Theodossopoulos. 2016.

Cultural Invention and the Dilemma of Authenticity
Jocelyn Linnekin. Journal Article. 1991.

Debating Authenticity: Concepts of Modernity in Anthropological Perspective
Edited by Thomas Fillitz and A. Jamie Saris. 2012.

These books will provide a grounding of the established academic knowledge of authenticity, and its historical importance as a intellectual framework for the study of people and their communities. Much of the research related to authenticity is carried out through the framework of tourism in non-western societies. However, the consumer choices of tourists and motivations of local people, will no doubt provide a relevent comparison to the attitudes of brewery owners who are not only looking to provide a product, but also an ‘authentic’ experience.

3.

The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective
Edited by Arjun Appadurai. 1986.

The Cultural Biography of Things. Igor Kopytoff. 1986.

The Experience Economy. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. 2011

The final strand of my research will focus on the product of craft beer as a ‘thing’, and the social meaning and implications of its popularity and consumption. I will also look to at the recent publications in the consumer research and marketing sphere, looking at the trends towards ‘ethical consumerism’ and the experience economy.

Info

Collaborators

This channel appears in

self-aware corporatism

Authenticity

Nothing here yet...

Go to AUTHENTIC ARENA's profile or explore recent public channels from other users