Crafting Community: The Role of Social Connections in Gothenburg's Craft Brew Scene: A qualitative study of Gothenburg as a social context of operations for craft breweries

Abstract

In response to the increasingly homogenised cultural and commercial landscape, as enabled by globalisation, more and more people seek out distinctly local products and a connection to their immediate locality. This phenomenon has been called neolocalism. The craft beer industry has long been an advocate for neolocal practices in many different parts of the world. Along with using local landmarks in names and imagery, a vital aspect of neolocalism is social engagement and strong ties to the local community. The purpose of this research is to, through qualitative interviews with respondents from five local craft breweries, explore how craft breweries in Gothenburg participate in collaborative practices and community engagement, and how they interpret the influence that their social context has on their operations. The data from the interviews were analysed by employing a thematic analysis, processing the data through the theoretic lenses of collective identity and embeddedness. The results show that the craft beer industry in Gothenburg utilises collaboration in a variety of ways and that the breweries themselves view the strong social cohesion in the industry as a great asset. A central element of the strong social cohesion is considered by the author to be the craft aspect of brewing, around which a collective identity has emerged, which also has resulted in high levels of embeddedness within the industry. The research complements existing neolocalism literature by providing an in-depth account of the social aspects of craft brewing with a focus on the brewers’ own interpretations.