Handcrafted Careers: Working the Artisan Economy of Craft Beer

Unpacks the problems and privileges of pursuing a career of passion by exploring work inside craft breweries.

As workers attempt new modes of employment in the era of the Great Resignation, they face a labor landscape that is increasingly uncertain and stubbornly unequal. With Handcrafted Careers, sociologist Eli Revelle Yano Wilson dives head-first into the everyday lives of workers in the craft beer industry to address key questions facing American workers today--about what makes a good career, who gets to have one, and how career progress in craft brewing might unfold.

Wilson argues that what ends up contributing to divergent career paths in craft beer is a complex interplay of workers’ own social connections, personal tastes, and cultural ideas about work, as well as crucial industry structures that are exclusionary. The culture of work in craft beer is based around normative white male ideals that can lead to select opportunities for some while limiting the advancement of women and people of color. A fresh perspective on this and other similar niche industries, Handcrafted Careers offers key insights into how people navigate worlds of work that promote ideas of authenticity and passion yet in reality can be unpredictable.

Eli Revelle Yano Wilson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico. His writing and research explores how work, race, and culture intersect in the new economy. He lives between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Ojai, California.