Minimum-wage Connoisseurship and Everyday Boundary Maintenance: Brewing Inequality in Third Wave Coffee. Issue 4 (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ott, Brian
• Other Names: Withers Erik T. guest-editor.; Ramirez Manuel A. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Humanity & society. Volume 44:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 469
• Page End: 491
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: work -- consumption -- embodiment -- boundaries; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0160597620932898
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0160-5976

Abstract

The shift from Fordism to post-Fordism in the United States introduced vast changes to production and consumption practices. In contrast to the commercial enterprises of Fordism, the post-Fordist economy relies on fast-changing tastes and small, niche markets along with new cultural forms for inducing consumption and anchoring identities. This article focuses on the specialty (or "third wave") coffee industry, where coffee is treated similarly to wine, which I argue is emblematic of a post-Fordist economy. Relying on data collected from over a year of ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that the specialty coffee industry represents a qualitative shift in the coffee industry, one that produces a new niche market and consumer base that commoditizes sensory experiences as embodied class dispositions. I argue that baristas perform a kind of labor that I term "minimum-wage connoisseurship, " where they receive minimum wage (and tips) along with additional payment in cultural and social capital that elevates their status as well as manufacture's consent for dedicating their time, in and outside of work, and their bodies to the organization.