Examining the meanings and motivations for working within the Scottish microbrewing industry

Ellis, Vaughan; Richards, James

Abstract

Brewing has experienced a considerable revival in recent years with the number of brewers in the UK being at its highest level since the 1930s (Cask Report, 2018). After decades of mergers and takeovers saw the emergence of a small number of global brewing conglomerates, many of the recently established brewers have spearheaded what has been referred to as a ‘craft beer revolution’. Typically, producing small batches of artisan brews and with small workforces, the output of craft brewers accounts for approximately 2.5% of all beer sales in the UK, but is the fastest growing sector of the drinks market. The growth of the industry mirrors that seen by artisan food producers and has led some to suggest an emerging preference for rejecting mass produced food and drink products.

Despite recognition of the craft beer industry's emergence, growth and cultural significance, almost nothing is known about work and employment within it. Indeed, to date only a handful of papers examining work within the industry have been published. Founded on a rejection of Fordist production methods, and utilising the craft knowledge of workers to design and sell ever expanding ranges of innovative products, the industry has been held up by some as offering an '...appealing antidote to modern industrial production and rationalised service provisions based on mass consumerism' (Thurnell-Read, 2014: 46). However, such claims have not been adequately explored, tested, nor their implications assessed.

Drawing upon thirty in-depth, semi-structured interviews with workers within craft breweries from across Scotland, the aim of this paper is to present preliminary findings examining the organisation and experience of work and employment within the Scottish craft beer industry. In particular, quality of working life, job satisfaction, work-life balance and career opportunities within the Scottish craft beer industry are evaluated. The findings are discussed through the prism of labour process theory and contribute to discussions on, for example, responsible autonomy, craft, rather than scientific principles of work organisation, and, self-organised forms of resistance and misbehaviour. The findings are expected to represent the first comprehensive accounts of work and employment in the emergent and rapidly expanding micro-brewing industry. The findings will also contribute to the extension of labour process theory and further demonstrate the relevance and importance of labour process analysis in contemporary work and employment contexts.

References:
Cask Report (2018) The Cask Report 2017/18, London: Cask Marque
Thurnell-Read, T., 2014. Craft, tangibility and affect at work in the microbrewery. Emotion, Space and Society, 13, pp.46-54.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Labour Process Conference
• Start Date: Apr 23, 2019
• End Date: Apr 26, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 7, 2019
• Keywords: craft work, micro brewing industry, self-employment
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1784384
• Publisher URL: https://www.ilpc.org.uk/