"Manufacturing" Community: Solidarity, Profit and the Bar Owner

Autores/as

  • Timothy Hartshorn Connecticut College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v6i1.8273

Resumen

This study considers the potential of eight independently-run bars in a small Connecticut seaport city to “manufacture” community. It focuses on the marked tension faced by the seven owners (and one manager) of these establishments, who seek to attract regular “crowds” with whom they respectively identify while also sustaining profit margins. By examining bar activity and functionality, this study contributes to contemporary understandings of “community” within anthropology. Of particular interest are theoretical frameworks that account for the negotiation of identity and potential development of community as these occur within specific localities, especially small businesses. Based on interview and observational data collected over a six-month period, this study finds that the bar may, indeed, be said to “manufacture” community. Each of the establishments reviewed entices patrons to identify (both as individuals and as members of a “crowd”) with a highly personalized bar space and, by extension, to make regular bar visits. This process fosters continuous discourse between owners and patrons concerning various elements of bar environment. Because owners hold greater influence over the bar space

Descargas

Número

Vol. 6 Núm. 1 (2016)

Sección

Articles

Licencia

By sending potential submissions to the editors, you grant The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography a royalty-free, perpetual, license to: use, reproduce, store, adapt, translate, and publicly display such submissions for any purpose.  In addition to the grant of the above license, you hereby consent to your name appearing as the contributor of any submission where applicable, and to the disclosure and/or display of such information and any other information which appears in or is associated with a submission. Further, you acknowledge and agree that The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography is not responsible for any loss, damage, or corruption that may occur to your submissions, and acknowledge and agree that any submissions you provide for display on the website will be considered non-confidential. If your manuscript is rejected, the above license is revoked, and your submission (manuscript, name, and associated documentation) will be stored only in the correspondence records of The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. You may submit your manuscript to other publications, but must withdraw if selected for publication in The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. Your paper itself is published using a strict Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Unported License that allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can‘t change them in any way or use them commercially. You retain the right to grant other permissions.