Making Sense of Signal Values and their Purposes among Craft Beer Consumers: The Case of the Netherlands

It has been well recognized in the literature that individuals are involved in consumption that signal particular symbolic values to others and themselves. Within the cultural consumption literature however, there has been on an ongoing debate concerning the purposes of signalling. While some argue that cultural consumption and tastes and are forms of status attainment in the display of social class, others have suggested that these social borders are fading, and consumption is more a means to construct an identity. This also referred to as the homology versus individualization debate. The case examined in this thesis is that of craft beer, one of the more recent industries of the cultural industries. Highlight factors such as innovation, experimentation and creativity, it has become increasingly more popular in the Netherlands. In order to get a better understanding of this newly developed cultural industry, a quantitative analysis was conducted on the Dutch craft beer consumer from a socio-economic perspective. This was done by the development of an own typology of the craft beer drinker based upon their lifestyle signalling behaviour. Thereafter, the different signal values and purposes of symbolic craft beer consumption were considered in order to position the case of craft beer within the previously described homology and individualization debate. This study reveals that different types of craft beer consumers exist with different forms of signal values and purposes of symbolic craft beer consumption. These differences are however, not bound to social class, but are rather based upon individualistic factors as a means of identity construction.