On his book Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy
Cover Interview of July 19, 2017
The wide angle
There are three broad forces occurring in society today that
in concert are leading to these jobs becoming cool.
First, how we classify
taste is shifting. Consumers are questioning what makes traditionally “highbrow”
products and services elite, while elevating typically “low-” and “middlebrow”
ones to a higher status. They are often seeking out more “authentic” products,
or products that are handmade, artisanal, “local,” tell a story, and provide an
experience through their consumption. These workers all provide such products
and services.
Second, many gentrifying neighborhoods in cities are
resembling new versions of the “urban village” model of the industrial era. In
other words, they are becoming self-contained places where incoming middle-class
residents can fulfill their daily needs at community staples, like bars, liquor
stores, barbershops, and butcher shops. Except, these versions offer high-end
products and unique experiences aimed at young people with disposable income. They
are also becoming cultural destinations for visitors from around the city, and
even around the world.
Third, work today is undergoing profound changes. Today’s
economy is knowledge- and technology-based, many industries and jobs are very
unstable and precarious, and workers often must absorb a lot of risk from their
employment and must increasingly brand themselves. Some young workers who feel
disaffected by this environment are seeking out alternative career paths, such as
these seemingly stable, traditional manual labor jobs. Young people today also
get taught that what they pursue as a career should be personally fulfilling
and meaningful, rather than merely for earning money. People pursue these jobs
because they have a passion for them, and they give them an identity they are
proud of.
In my career, I have focused on the relationship between
culture and the economy in today’s cities, and how urbanites deal with and
respond to this relationship in their everyday lives. I was examining nightlife
scenes in gentrifying neighborhoods in New York City when I came upon some of
these high-end cocktail bars. My discovery led to an interest in the city’s
cocktail community, especially the people who devoted so much of themselves to learning
about and making cocktails: the bartenders. I gradually gathered more cases
until I had what I felt was an illustrative set for understanding a fascinating
phenomenon: traditional blue-collar jobs that had become “cool,” largely due to
cultural and economic in today’s cities.
I am also a qualitative sociologist, and use ethnographic
fieldwork as my primary research method. In short, I prefer to hang out with
the people I study in their natural environments. My questions therefore always
revolve around what I can observe people actually doing. These workplaces
allowed me to both see and participate in the action.
[M]odern art still commonly refers to a rather narrow range of meaning and scope. It basically focuses on developments in Paris (Impressionism etc.) in the nineteenth century, and to selected Euro-American movements in the twentieth century (Cubism, Abstract Expressionism etc). But if we understand modernity as a socially transformative condition that was in force across much of the world from the nineteenth century on, how are we to understand artistic practices that were associated with these momentous changes?Iftikhar Dadi, Interview of March 26, 2012
The two world wars of the twentieth century were a product of the dislocations brought about of modernization in an environment where great power competition and the drive for hegemony were conducted primarily by violent means. Now that this era has passed in Europe and is receding in much of the Pacific rim, and hegemony achieved by force is no longer considered a legitimate ambition, the security requirements and fears of great powers should decline.Richard Ned Lebow, Interview of October 4, 2010
The wide angle
There are three broad forces occurring in society today that in concert are leading to these jobs becoming cool.
First, how we classify taste is shifting. Consumers are questioning what makes traditionally “highbrow” products and services elite, while elevating typically “low-” and “middlebrow” ones to a higher status. They are often seeking out more “authentic” products, or products that are handmade, artisanal, “local,” tell a story, and provide an experience through their consumption. These workers all provide such products and services.
Second, many gentrifying neighborhoods in cities are resembling new versions of the “urban village” model of the industrial era. In other words, they are becoming self-contained places where incoming middle-class residents can fulfill their daily needs at community staples, like bars, liquor stores, barbershops, and butcher shops. Except, these versions offer high-end products and unique experiences aimed at young people with disposable income. They are also becoming cultural destinations for visitors from around the city, and even around the world.
Third, work today is undergoing profound changes. Today’s economy is knowledge- and technology-based, many industries and jobs are very unstable and precarious, and workers often must absorb a lot of risk from their employment and must increasingly brand themselves. Some young workers who feel disaffected by this environment are seeking out alternative career paths, such as these seemingly stable, traditional manual labor jobs. Young people today also get taught that what they pursue as a career should be personally fulfilling and meaningful, rather than merely for earning money. People pursue these jobs because they have a passion for them, and they give them an identity they are proud of.
In my career, I have focused on the relationship between culture and the economy in today’s cities, and how urbanites deal with and respond to this relationship in their everyday lives. I was examining nightlife scenes in gentrifying neighborhoods in New York City when I came upon some of these high-end cocktail bars. My discovery led to an interest in the city’s cocktail community, especially the people who devoted so much of themselves to learning about and making cocktails: the bartenders. I gradually gathered more cases until I had what I felt was an illustrative set for understanding a fascinating phenomenon: traditional blue-collar jobs that had become “cool,” largely due to cultural and economic in today’s cities.
I am also a qualitative sociologist, and use ethnographic fieldwork as my primary research method. In short, I prefer to hang out with the people I study in their natural environments. My questions therefore always revolve around what I can observe people actually doing. These workplaces allowed me to both see and participate in the action.