In the Aftermath: Craft Beer, Neolocalism, and Community Resilience Academic Article uri icon

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 13: Climate Action 

Abstract

  • In disaster recovery, community resilience researchers continue to find social capital and place attachment play critical roles. Gaps remain, however,
    regarding the role of for-profit firms, which are normally viewed as “extending” organizations. Meanwhile, craft beer scholarship often centers on
    breweries' capacities to foster place attachment and social capital, often signaled by neolocalism, or intentionality in constructing communal identity.
    This study leverages a unique research opportunity to observe the before and after processes of place construction in the context of craft beer
    breweries and disaster recovery in coastal communities. We find the breweries’ neolocalism to be characterized by “liminality,” or the in-between of
    juxtaposing themes. The sense of place fostered spaces for social capital, aiding brewery patrons' recovery following Hurricane Florence. Rather than
    extending organizations, these findings suggest neolocalist for-profit firms may help community resilience through their regular tasks of constructing
    space for communal identity.

Publication Date

  • 2023-09-01