Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Masters of Craft
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/richard-e-ocejo * http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/faculty/cv/Richard%20E.%20Ocejo%20CV_0.pdf
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Fordham University, B.A., 2002; Queens College, CUNY, 2005, M.A.; Graduate Center, CUNY. Ph.D, 2009.
ADDRESS
CAREER
College of Staten Island, CUNY, adjunct lecturer, 2003; Bronx Community College, CUNY, graduate teaching fellow, 2003-2005; Brooklyn College, CUNY, adjunct lecturer, 2007-2008; Pace University, adjunct lecturer, 2008-2009; John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, assistant professor, 2009-2016, associate professor, 2016-; CUNY Graduate Center, associate professor, 2013-.
MEMBER:American Sociological Association, Eastern Sociological Society, and Southern Sociological Society.
WRITINGS
Has contributed chapters to books and articles to journals, including Poetics, Ethnography, European Journal of Cultural Studies, City & Community, and City, Culture, and Society. Serves as editorial board member for Work and Occupations, senior editor for Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, and contributing editor to Metropolitics,
SIDELIGHTS
As associate professor of sociology at CUNY’s John Jay College of Justice and at the Graduate Center, Richard E. Ocejo teaches courses with a focus on urban and cultural sociology and community studies. He contributes chapters to academic texts and journals in the field, and he hosts a podcast for the Sociology channel on the New Books Network. He serves in editorial capacities for the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, and he is editor of the collection Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork.
Upscaling Downtown
Ocejo’s first book is Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City, in which he studies the immigrant and working-class neighborhoods of Manhattan—specifically the Lower East Side, the East Village, and the Bowery—and the ways in which they have changed over the years. As the publisher described it, in examining the tension of urban change, Ocego “illustrates the contested and dynamic process of neighborhood growth.” A.B. Audant, critic in Choice, praised the book, finding its “strongly grounded analysis . . . enlivened by many interviews and casual conversations” and its “lens on gentrification . . . unique.”
Writing in the Financial Times Online, Gary Silverman thought that a reliance on interviews from business owners and neighborhood residents made “more shadowy forces remain unseen,” among them crime mobs and the malfeasance of the police. Still, Silverman observed that the book “is at its best when it delves into the emotions of downtown denizens—particularly the role that ‘nostalgia narratives’ . . . play in the lives of old settlers.” Silverman called out one incident as “perhaps the most tender moment in the book.” At one point, the “proprietor of a bar serving classic cocktails meets a veteran bartender who teaches him to make several vintage libations and presents him with a copy of ‘the Trader Vic Rum Book from 1948’.”
Masters of Craft
In Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy, Ocejo delves into the growing trend for young and educated men to enter the manual labor force. As the publisher describes it, Ocejo’s book “looks at the renaissance of four such trades: bartending, distilling, barbering, and butchering.”
A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that such jobs had become “hip and desirable,” which aroused Ocejo’s curiosity. The reviewer thought Ocejo “engagingly portrays several workers, tracing their motivations for choosing a job, their satisfactions and challenges, and plans for their futures” and called the book an “often entertaining look at new service jobs in an urban economy.” A Publishers Weekly critic called it a “scrupulously detailed” study that would interest “sociologists and others with a serious interest in hipster culture.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, March, 2015, A.B. Audant, review of Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City, p. 1238.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2017, review of Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy.
Publishers Weekly, March 6, 2017, review of Masters of Craft, p. 52.
ONLINE
Financial Times Online, https://www.ft.com (October 26, 2014), Gary Silverman, review of Upscaling Downtown.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Website, http://www.jjay.cuny.edu (November 6, 2017), author profile.
Princeton University Press Website, https://press.princeton.edu (November 6, 2017), book description.
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 1of 15Richard E. OcejoAssociateProfessor, Department of Sociology 524 W. 59th St.; 520.12HH; NY, NY, 10019John Jay Collegeand the Graduate Center,CUNY(212) 237-8687; rocejo@jjay.cuny.eduEDUCATIONPh.D., Sociology. 2009. CUNY Graduate Center.M.A.,Sociology. 2005. Queens College, CUNY.B.A.,Sociology. 2002. Fordham University. PROFESSIONAL POSITIONSPresent2016-current. Associate Professor.Doctoral Faculty in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center.2016-current. Associate Professor. Department of Sociology, JohnJay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. 2013-current. Associate Professor. Doctoral Faculty in Criminal Justice, CUNY Graduate Center. Previous2009-2016.Assistant Professor.John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. 2008-2009. Adjunct Lecturer. Pace University. Courses taught: Urban Sociology and Introduction to Sociology(twice).2007-2008. Adjunct Lecturer. Brooklyn College, CUNY.Courses taught: Urban Sociology(twice)and Senior Seminar.2003-2005. Graduate Teaching Fellow. Bronx Community College,CUNY. Courses taught: Introduction to Sociology (four times), Social Deviance (three times), and Class and Power (once).2003. Summer. Adjunct Lecturer. College of Staten Island,CUNY. Course taught: Class, Status, and Power.PUBLICATIONSBooks2017. Masters of Craft: OldJobs in the New Urban Economy. Princeton University Press. * Reviews: Publishers Weekly(2017); Kirkus Reviews (2017); Financial Times(April 21, 2017); Wall Street Journal (May 24, 2017)
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 2of 152014. Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City.Princeton University Press.*Reviews:American Journal of Sociology (121:4) (2016);Urban Geography Research Group (April, 2016. URL: http://urban-geography.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Tuttle-2016-Review-of-Ocejo.pdf); Sociological Forum (31:1) (2016); Social Forces(online; 10/12/15);Acta Sociologica (58:2) (2015);Contemporary Sociology (45:1) (2016); City & Community (14:2) (2015); Kirkus Reviews (2014); Financial Times(October 26, 2014)2012. Ethnography andthe City: ReadingsonDoing Urban Fieldwork(ed.). Routledge.*Reviews:Journal of Urban Affairs (36:3) (2014);Urban Studies(51:12) (2014); Metropolitics(3 April 2013. URL:http://www.metropolitiques.eu/Urban-Ethnography-A-Handbook.html)Peer-ReviewedJournal Articles 2014. “Show the Animal: Constructing and Communicating New Elite Food Tastes at Upscale Butcher Shops.” Poetics.47: 106-21.2014. “Subway Diaries:How People Experience and Practice Riding the Train,” with Stephane Tonnelat (second author). Ethnography.15 (4): 493-515. * Reprinted in International Express: New Yorkers on the #7 Train, by Stephane Tonnelat and William Kornblum. Cornell University Press. Forthcoming.2012. “At Your Service: The Meanings and Practices of Contemporary Bartenders.”European Journal of Cultural Studies.15 (5): 642-48. 2011. “The Early Gentrifier: Weaving a Nostalgia Narrative on the Lower East Side.” City & Community. 10 (3): 285-310.2010. “‘What’ll it Be?’: Service and the Limits of Creative Work Among Cocktail Bartenders.” City, Culture, and Society. 1 (4): 179-84. Lead article.Invited Book Chapters2017. “The Science and the Art of Making: Bartenders, Distillers, Barbers, and Butchers,” Geographies of Making/Making Geographies: Embodiment, Matter and Practice, Laura Price and Harriet Hawkins (eds). Routledge. Forthcoming.2014. “Cultural Intermediary Case Studies: Food and Drink,” in The Cultural Intermediaries Reader, Jennifer Smith Maguire and Julian Matthews (eds.)Sage Publications.Pp. 192-201.2013. “Brokerage, Mediation, and Social Networks in the Creative Industries,” with Pacey Foster(first author) in Oxford Handbook of Creative and Cultural Industries, Candace Jones (ed.) Oxford University Press.Pp. 405-20
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 3of 152013. “Writing Textual Analyses:Literature Reviews, Book Reviews, Annotated Bibliographies, and Encyclopedia Entries,”Chapter 4 in Writing for Emerging Sociologists, Angelique Harris and Alia Tyner-Mullings (eds.) Sage Publications.Pp. 91-5.2009.“Nightlife in New York City: Regulating the City that Never Sleeps,” with David Brotherton(second author), Chapter 13 in Nightlife and Crime: Social Order and Governance in International Perspective, Philip Hadfield(ed.) Oxford University Press.Pp. 207-18.Book Reviews,Peer-reviewed Essays, and Reports2017. Review of Brooke Harrington’s Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent (Harvard University Press, 2016). Work and Occupations. Forthcoming.2017. Report (with Chantal Martineau) for Steely Fox, UK-based brand agency, “Cocktails: The New Golden Era.”Forthcoming.2017. Review of Terry Williams and Trevor B. Milton’s The Con Men: Hustling in New York City(Columbia University Press, 2015). Contemporary Sociology.(46) 3: 367-8.2017. Review of Sarah Bowen’s Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production (University of California Press, 2015). Contemporary Sociology.(46) 2: 163-4.2016. Review of Rachael A. Woldoff, Lisa M. Morrison, and Michael R. Glass’s Priced Out: Stuyvesant Town and the Loss of Middle-Class Neighborhoods(New York University Press, 2016).International Journal of Comparative Sociology.(57) 4: 256-9.2015.“BarFights on the Bowery.” Peer-reviewed feature article. Contexts.(14) 3: 20-5.2015. Review of Ruben A. Buford May’s Urban Nightlife: Entertaining Race, Class, and Culture in Public Space(Rutgers University Press, 2014). City & Community.(14) 2: 228-31.2015. “Taking Research to the Streets,” with Jonathan Wynn(first author). Peer-reviewed journal essay. Metropolitics.9 June 2015. URL: http://www.metropolitiques.eu/Taking-Research-to-the-Streets.html2015. “In Cathedrals of Craft: The New Elite Retail, Manual Labor, and Service Jobs.” Peer-reviewed journal essay. Metropolitics, 5 May 2015. URL: http://www.metropolitiques.eu/In-Cathedrals-of-Craft-Workplaces.html2014. “The Abattoir’s Call: At the Margins of New York City’s Foodie Movement.” Metropolitics, 17 November 2014. URL:http://www.metropolitiques.eu/The-Abattoir-s-Call-At-the-Margins.html2013. Review essay on Olaf Kaltmeier’s(ed.)Selling EthniCity: Urban Cultural Politics inthe Americas(Ashgate, 2011); Heiko Schmid, Wolf-Dietrich Sahr, and John Urry’s(eds.)Cities andFascination:Beyond the Surplus of Meaning(Ashgate, 2011); and Terry Nichols Clark’s(ed.)The City as an Entertainment Machine(Lexington, 2011).International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.37 (1).Pp. 348-51.
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 4of 152011. “The Triumph of Density and the Agony of Sprawl: Glaeser’s Solutions for Improving Our Cities.” Peer-reviewed review of Edward Glaeser’s Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier(Penguin Books, 2012). Metropolitics, 23 November 2011. URL:http://www.metropolitiques.eu/The-Triumph-of-Density-and-the.html. 2009. “As It Seems: Producing and Consuming Nightlife in the Postindustrial City.” Reviewof David Grazian’s On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife(University of Chicago Press, 2008). Sociological Forum. (24) 3.Pp. 720-5.2007. Review of Deborah Talbot’s Regulating the Night: Race, Culture, and Exclusion in the Making of the Night-time Economy(Ashgate, 2007). Urban Geography Research Group: Royal Geography Society with theInstitute of British Geographers. URL: http://urban-geography.org.uk/Book%20Reviews/Ocejo%20-%20Talbot%20%282007%29.pdf2005. Review of James Howard Kunstler’s The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition(Free Press, 2001).City&Community.4(3).Pp. 323-4.2005. Review of Janja Lalich’s Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults(University of California Press, 2004).Contemporary Sociology. 34(4).Pp. 384-5.Encyclopedia Entries2017. “Ethnography,” entry for Essential Concepts in Sociology, edited by J. Michael Ryan. Wiley-Blackwell. Forthcoming.2011. “Cultural Capital,” entry in Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, George Ritzer and J. Michael Ryan, eds. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Pp. 104-5.2008. “Service Economy,” entry in Encyclopedia for the Study of Social Problems, Vincent N. Parrillo, ed. NY: Sage Publications.Works inProgress Books Under ContractCrafting Research: Practical Skills for Solving Social Problems (working title). Routledge.Peer-ReviewedJournalArticles“Sustaining Enchantment: Work Practice Strategies among Culture Workers.” With Alexandre Frenette. Peer-reviewed journal article.Revise and resubmit.Research in the Sociology of Work.“Cool for Some: The Gendered Experiences of Precarious Work.” With Yasemin Besen-Cassino. Peer-reviewed journal article. In progress.“The Rise of the Authentic Self.” With Amanda Anthony. Peer-reviewed journal article. In progress.
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 5of 15Invited Book Chapters“Gentrification and Urban Inequality,” Oxford Handbook of Consumption, Frederick Wherry and Ian Woodward (eds). Oxford.PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONSAcademic Conferences2017. “Cool for Some: The Gendered Experiences of Precarious Work.” Regular Session on Gender and Work at the American Sociological Association’s annual conference, in Montreal.2016. “‘You just don’t know that you like gin’: ClassifyingConsumers among New Elite Service Workers.” The Consumers Network Roundtable for the Culture Section at the American Sociological Association’s annual conference, in Seattle.(And presider.)2016. “Craft Service: Experiencing “Bad” Jobs among New Elite Manual Laborers.” Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association Pre-conference on The New Economy, in Seattle.2016. “Sustaining Enchantment: Work Practice Strategiesamong Culture Workers.”Paper Session on “Sociology Confronting the New Economic Order.”Academic paper presentation at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, in Boston.2015. “Reading about New York: New Books on NYC.” Spotlight Session on New York City. Book talkat the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, in New York City.2015. “How Middle Class Kids Want Working Class Jobs.” Paper Session on “Professional Identities in the Cultural Industries.” Academic paperpresentation at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, in New York City.2014. “Downtown Ghosts: The Lower East Side’s Day/Night Conflict.” Academicpaper presentation at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, in Baltimore.2013. “Show the Animal: Skill and the Communication of Food Values among Butchers.” Academicpaper presentation at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, in Boston.2013. “In the Company of Men: The Construction of Masculinity at Upscale Barbershops.” Academic paper presentation at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, in Boston.2012. “The Tradesmen: Interactive Service, Craft Production, and the Reinvention of Working-Class Jobs.” Academic paper presentation and workshop at the “Experience the Creative Economy” conference at the Martin Prosperity Institute, in Toronto. 2012. “Cultural intermediaries in an age of disintermediation: Brokerage roles in the productionand consumption of culture” (with Pacey Foster, first author). Academic paper presentationat the Annual Meeting of the International Network for Social Network Analysis, in Los
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 6of 15Angeles.2012.“Craft and the Reinvention of Working-Class Jobs.” Academic paper presentation at the American Association of Geographers’annual conference,in New York City.2012.“Geographies of Craft and Crafting.” Academic paper presentation at the American Association of Geographers’annual conference,in New York City. 2012.“Ethnography and the World of Fiction.” Academic panel (Organizer, presenter, and discussant) at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference,in New York City. 2011. “Gatekeepers, tastemakers and co-producers: Understanding the changing role of cultural intermediaries in the new creative economy”(with Pacey Foster, first author). Academic paper presentation at the American Association of Geographers’annual conference,in Seattle.2011. “Making drinks: Conspicuous production and the craft of cocktails and microdistilling.” Academic paper presentation at the Eastern Sociology Society’s annual conference,in Philadelphia.2011. “Re-Forming the City,” Panel Discussant, Regular Paper Session at the Eastern Sociology Society’s annual conference,in Philadelphia.2010. “‘I’m just a humble bartender’: Craft Production, Creative Regression, and Professional Identity in a Service Industry.” Academic paperpresentation at the American Sociological Association,in Atlanta.2010. “The Reinvention of Mixology: Cocktail Culture, Craft Production, and Community in the Postindustrial Economy.” Academic paper presentationat the International Sociological AssociationWorld Congress of Sociology’sannual conference,in Gothenburg, Sweden. 2010. “Craft Production, Creative Regression, and the Cocktail Industry.” Academic paper presentation and workshop at the “Experiencethe Creative Economy” conference at the Martin Prosperity Institute, in Toronto. 2010. “In the Public Interest: Politics and Powerlessness in Nightlife Development.” Academic paper presentation at the Eastern Sociology Society’sannual conference,in Boston.2008. “The Uses of Nightlife Disorder: Flexible Regulation and the Urban Nighttime Economy,” panel paper presentation at the American Sociological Association’sannual conference in Boston. 2008. “Notes on Lower East Side Cocktail Bars: The Mixology Cultural Field and Spaces of Creativity in the Contemporary City.”Roundtable paper presentationat the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference in New York City.
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 7of 152007.“Into the Night: Urban Change through the Prism of Bars and Bar Landscapes.” Academic paper presentation at the American Sociological Association’s annual conference inNew York City.2007.“Rebranding W.A.C. at BMCC.”Academic paper presentationat the CUNY Writing Across the Curriculum Program’s Professional Development Conference at Baruch College of CUNY. 2007.“Bar Landscapes: Culture and Conflict on the Lower East Side.”Academic paper presentation at theEastern Sociological Society’s annual conference in Philadelphia.2007.“Subway Diaries:Immigrant High School Students on the 7 Train.”Academic paper presentation at theEastern Sociological Society’s annual conference in Philadelphia.2006. “Ordering the Home Away from Home: Bartenders andthe Construction of Boundaries.”Academic paper presentation at theAmerican Sociological Association’s annual conference in Montreal, QC. 2006. “The Persistence of Place: Gentrification and the Survival of an Urban Bar.”Academic paper presentation at the Pacific Sociological Association’s annual conference in Hollywood Hills, CA.2006. “Intoxicating Situations: The Benefits of Drinkingin the Field.”Academic paper presentation at theSUNY Stony Brook Third Annual Student Ethnography Conference.2006. “The Smallest Bar in the World: Spatial Structuring at an Urban Third Place.”Roundtable paper presentationat the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference in Boston.2005. “Bringing Work Home: An Ethnographer’s Self-discovery from Living with Subjects.”Academic paper presentation at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference in Washington,D.C. Invited Talks andInterviews2017. Interview with Schuyler Velasco for TheChristian Science MonitorEconomy article, “Hot new job for middle-class students: manual labor.”https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2017/0724/Hot-new-job-for-middle-class-students-manual-labor. July 24.2017. Interview with Amir Vera for The Virginian-Pilot Jobs & Employment article, “Millennials aren’t just digital, they’re moving into old-school, manual jobs.” https://pilotonline.com/business/jobs/millennials-aren-t-just-digital-they-re-moving-into-old/article_c9155bed-6429-50ab-a096-6f7b9a134355.html. July 19.2017. Interview with Jo Allison for Canvas8 report, “Why being a butcher is the coolest job on the block.” https://www.canvas8.com/content/2017/07/06/masters-of-craft.html. July 6.
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 8of 152017. Interview with Fernando Pacheco for the “The Monocle Daily” podcast. https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-monocle-daily/1460/. June 16.2017. Interview with David Scharfenberg for the Boston Globe “Ideas” piece “Manual labor goes upscale, one craft cocktail at a time.” http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2017/06/16/manual-labor-goes-upscale-one-craft-cocktail-time/ny45UsNUm2imFZHmb4ucyK/story.html.June 16.2017. Interview for The Morning Blaze podcast. https://www.theblaze.com/podcasts/many-millennials-with-their-college-degrees-are-pursuing-these-surprising-jobs-instead/. June 12.2017. Interview with Natalie Hee for CW39 Houston. http://cw39.com/2017/06/06/new-study-shows-millennials-are-choosing-blue-collar-jobs-over-corporate/. June 6.2017. Interview with Lauren Weber for the Wall Street Journalarticle“Why old-timey jobs are hot again.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-old-timey-jobs-are-hot-again-1496754001. June 6.2017. Interview with Cardiff Garcia for the Financial Times’s Alphachat podcast. http://podcast.ft.com/2017/06/02/the-new-masters-of-craft/. June 2.2017. Interview with Kai Ryssdal for Marketplace on NPR. “Is the craft movement making service jobs hip?” https://www.marketplace.org/2017/05/25/economy/craft-movement-making-service-jobs-hip.May 25.2017. Interview with Sarah E. Patterson for New Books Network in Sociology podcast. http://newbooksnetwork.com/richard-e-ocejo-masters-of-craft-old-jobs-in-the-new-urban-economy-princeton-up-2017/. May 22.2017. Interview with Ryan Vlastelica for MarketWatch. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-some-of-the-economys-hottest-new-jobs-are-as-old-as-time-2017-05-12. May 12.2017. Interview with Laurie Taylorfor “Thinking Allowed,” on BBC Radio 4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pfpj2. May 10. 2017. Book talk at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. April 24.2017. AKD Initiation Ceremony Speaker, United StatesMilitary Academyat West Point. April 6.2017. Book talk at SUNY New Paltz.March 30.2017. Book talk at the University of Central Florida. March 6. 2016. Public Sociology Lecture at Hunter College, CUNY. September 14.2016. Beyond the Beat:Musicians Building Community in Nashville,by Daniel Cornfield. Author-Meets-Critics Session at the Southern Sociological Society’s annual conference in Atlanta.
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 14of 152010. Stewart Travel Grant, CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences. Travel grant to attend andpresent a paper at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference in Boston. 2010. PSC-CUNY 41 Research Award Program. For project entitled, “The Reinvention of Mixology: Cocktail Culture, Craft Production, and Community in the Postindustrial Economy”2007. Doctoral Student Research Grant Program. CUNY student research grant for dissertation project.2005-07. Writing Fellowship, CUNY Writing Fellows Program. Position at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY.2003-05. GraduateTeaching Fellowship,CUNY Graduate Teaching Fellows Program. Position atBronx Community College, CUNY.OTHER RESEARCH EXPERIENCE AND EMPLOYMENT8/2008-5/2009. Academic Skills Advisor. School of Professional Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY. 2/2008-5/2009. Academic Consultant.Office of Educational Opportunity and Diversity Programs (OEODP) at the Graduate Center, CUNY. 9/2007-5/2008. Research Assistant.“Nightlife Safety Training and Research Program,” with principal investigator David Brotherton (Ph.D., John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY). 9/2005-8/2007. Research Assistant.“The 7 Train Subway Project,”with co-principal investigatorsStephane Tonnelat (Ph.D., College of Staten Island, CUNY) and William Kornblum (Ph.D., Graduate Center, CUNY).9/2005-5/2007. CUNY Writing Fellow. Borough of Manhattan Community College,CUNY. 3/2005-12/2006. College Assistant.Office of Research and Sponsored Programsat the Graduate Center,CUNY. 6/2005-9/2005. Ethnographic Research Assistant.Horowitz Associates Market Research and Consulting. 1/2003-2/2005. Research Assistant.Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center,CUNY.1/2003-5/2003. Research Assistant. Assistant for Julia Wrigley, Deputy Executive Officer at the Graduate Center of CUNY. REFERENCES
Richard E. Ocejo, August2017, Page 15of 15
Associate Professor
Email: rocejo@jjay.cuny.edu
Phone number: 212.237.8687
Room number: 520.12HH
EDUCATION
2009 Ph.D. - The Graduate Center, CUNY
2005 MA - Queens College, CUNY
2002 BA - Fordham University
BIO
I am an associate professor of sociology at John Jay College, and also a member of the doctoral faculty in sociology at the Graduate Center. My most recent book, Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton University Press; 2017), is about the transformation of low-status occupations into "cool," cultural taste-making jobs (cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale men's barbers, and whole animal butchers). My first book, Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City, about nightlife and conflict in gentrified neighborhoods, was also published by Princeton University Press in 2014. My work has appeared in such journals as City & Community, Poetics, Ethnography, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. I am also the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork (Routledge; 2012) and serve on the editorical boards of the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. My current research examines small cities in the 21st century, focusing on the City of Newburgh, NY. My overall research and teaching interests include urban and cultural sociology, community studies, work and occupations, and research methods (especially qualitative methods). Finally, I am a podcast host of the Sociology channel on the New Books Network.
PUBLICATIONS
See CV
EXPERTISE
Urban and cultural sociology, community studies, work and occupations, and research methods (especially qualitative methods)
Ocejo, Richard E.: MASTERS OF CRAFT
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ocejo, Richard E. MASTERS OF CRAFT Princeton Univ. (Adult Nonfiction) $29.95 5, 9 ISBN: 978-0-691-16549-3
How formerly low-status jobs have become cool, creative careers.When conducting research for his previous book,
Ocejo (Sociology/John Jay Coll. of Criminal Justice; Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in
New York City, 2014, etc.) became a regular customer at several Manhattan cocktail bars. Bartending, he had assumed,
was a menial, unstable job. However, the bartenders he met were "well-educated and culturally savvy" men, with other
career opportunities, who saw in mixology an outlet for craftsmanship and creativity. The job, he was surprised to
discover, had become hip and desirable. Curious about this redefinition of the meaning of work, the author expanded
his view to include craft distilling, upscale men's barbershops, and whole-animal butchers. After interning at a distillery
and a butcher, conducting dozens of interviews, and spending countless hours observing, Ocejo concludes that "the
upscale, new elite versions" of some ordinary occupations "have become cultural tastemakers, specifically producers of
omnivorous tastes, in the gentrifying city." He argues, furthermore, that those who take these jobs "enact a set of
'cultural repertoires' " that reflect and communicate specialized cultural knowledge. Ocejo was 26 when he began his
research and 32 when he completed it, roughly the age of the men he focused on; he is "straight, middle-class, and
well-educated," like many of the workers and customers he observed; and he admits that an older or ethnically diverse
or female investigator might offer a different perspective. Still, even within the young, white, male limitations of his
ethnography, Ocejo successfully supports, and too often repeats, his argument that "for young urbanites with hip tastes,
these workplaces exude cool." Cocktail bars and upscale barbershops "represent fun, cool, and urbane alternatives" to
sports bars and quick haircut mills. The author engagingly portrays several workers, tracing their motivations for
choosing a job, their satisfactions and challenges, and plans for their futures. A close-up and often entertaining look at
new service jobs in an urban economy.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Ocejo, Richard E.: MASTERS OF CRAFT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2017. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA482911818&it=r&asid=34585f3b16e5a7e6e2ddcbfeb480aaba.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482911818
10/22/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508703519131 2/3
Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban
Economy
Publishers Weekly.
264.10 (Mar. 6, 2017): p52.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy
Richard E. Ocejo. Princeton Univ., $29.95
(368p) ISBN 978-0-691-16549-3
Why are upscale versions of traditional manufacturing and service jobs considered hip, desirable, and cool? Ocejo, a
sociology professor, examines the "urban village model" that has revitalized urban areas. He looks at four elements of
gentrification--craft breweries, barber shops, whole-animal butcher shops, and cocktail bars. According to Ocejo, the
upscale versions of these traditional crafts and services represent "a new form of luxury" replacing the traditional form
of luxury consumption--opera, haute French restaurants--with a new form that mixes "interactive service with cultural
knowledge and omnivorous tastes." Using his own field experiences and interviews with business owners and workers,
the author identifies transformations in the U.S. cultural elite that have led to this new service economy, one that is
strikingly male-dominated. He uses Chelsea Market in Manhattan as an example of how the reappearance of
businesses formerly considered essential, but not prestigious, in exclusive and expensive form mirrors the
gentrification of the neighborhoods that once supported them in their previous incarnations. The book reads well, but
not easily. It is academic in tone and scrupulously detailed. Sociologists and others with a serious interest in hipster
culture will learn much from it. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy." Publishers Weekly, 6 Mar. 2017, p. 52. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA484973680&it=r&asid=0a0afefff9bdf16ce977549b3c0effc7.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A484973680
10/22/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508703519131 3/3
Ocejo, Richard E.: Upscaling downtown: from
Bowery saloons to cocktail bars in New York
City
A.B. Audant
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
52.7 (Mar. 2015): p1238.
COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Ocejo, Richard E. Upscaling downtown: from Bowery saloons to cocktail bars in New York City. Princeton, 2014.
257p bibl Index afp ISBN 9780691155166 cloth, $35.00
52-3947
TX950
2014-933832 MARC
Using bars as a barometer for gentrification, Ocejo (sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice) explores the
dynamics of change on New York City's Bowery, once a working-class neighborhood best known for its cheap hotels
and skid-row denizens. Cocktail lounges and upscale bars, the author skillfully demonstrates, are a form of commercial
activity that disrupts communities by attracting revelers who travel to the neighborhood to drink, eat, and dance late
into the night and have little regard for residents whose day begins when the nightlife winds down. The lens on
gentrification is unique, and the study contributes to a thriving body of work that explores the conflicts that emerge in
formerly downtrodden neighborhoods when luxury housing, restaurants catering to a well-to-do crowd, and evolving
concepts of quality of life displace long-term residents. It also provides a welcome survey of sites of participatory
democracy and the diverse voices straining to be heard. Chapters focus on the role of the community board, the SLA
(State Liquor Authority), and local policing of nightlife scenes, among other perspectives. The strongly grounded
analysis is enlivened by many interviews and casual conversations, illustrative of the hours of research and observation
that informed the narrative and attest to the author's commitment to the project. Summing Up: *** Highly
recommended. All academic levels/libraries.--A. B. Audant, CUNYKingsborough Community College
Audant, A.B.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Audant, A.B. "Ocejo, Richard E.: Upscaling downtown: from Bowery saloons to cocktail bars in New York City."
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Mar. 2015, p. 1238. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA416401722&it=r&asid=9da569244464a9b7047a388b9a3f3e0f.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A416401722
Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/8b87e13c-4e40-11e4-bfda-00144feab7de
‘Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City’, by Richard Ocejo
A sentimental side of New York that skips the darker areas
Share on Twitter (opens new window)
Share on Facebook (opens new window)
Share on LinkedIn (opens new window)
4 Save
OCTOBER 26, 2014 by Gary Silverman
With all the people yelling and screaming and rushing from here to there, it is easy to miss the sentimental side of the city of New York. But there is one – and readers can catch a glimpse of it in Richard Ocejo’s book Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City.
Ocejo is a sociologist who downed a cold beer at Milano’s, an old-style New York bar, and was inspired to examine the role that drinking establishments have played in the gentrification of the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Despite its urban backdrop, his story will be familiar to anyone with a taste for western movies. It begins with pioneers – artists, musicians, eccentrics – who ventured into the mean streets of lower Manhattan in the 1970s to find themselves, or at least secure a stool, in one of the dive bars serving up cheap drinks and the gritty ambience favoured by the young, the romantic and the restless. Downtown becomes cool, then trendy and before the settlers are ready, entrepreneurs arrive to create what Ocejo calls “nightlife scenes” attracting well-heeled young urban professionals and the dreaded “bridge-and-tunnel” crowd – a local term for those of us (yes, me) who cross the water to make it to the island of Manhattan.
The pioneers of punk rock and its related arts come to be surrounded by a new breed of nocturnal revellers who head to lower Manhattan to consume rather than create. Ocejo’s story ends with the old avant-garde staking out a conservative stance at community meetings that advise the pro-growth New York State Liquor Authority on its licensing decisions. With little success, the ageing rebels call for fewer bars and quieter streets. They want to sleep – perchance to dream of the good old days.
Ocejo is an earnest observer of this process, but his book has flaws. His prose lacks the fluidity befitting his subject, his structure is haphazard and his emphasis on field work creates a built-in naïveté. He leans too heavily on interviews with obvious sources – bar owners, residents and such. More shadowy forces remain unseen. Little attention is paid to the traditional role of organised crime in regulating New York’s nightlife or the city’s history of police corruption arising from the enforcement of the liquor laws. Undue surprise is expressed at the powerlessness of community activists.
Ocejo’s account is at its best when it delves into the emotions of downtown denizens – particularly the role that “nostalgia narratives”, as he calls them, play in the lives of old settlers. He finds New Yorkers with their arms firmly wrapped around their memories (in defiance of the well-known injunction against such behaviour issued by one of the legends of the downtown Manhattan music scene, the late Johnny Thunders).
“The past held an almost sacred status for them,” Ocejo writes of the downtown residents he met and observed. “Weeping and screaming, they spoke passionately . . . about their love for their neighbourhood and about what it used to be like.”
The irony – which is only hinted at in Ocejo’s book and deserves further exploration – is this reverence for the past is shared by the newcomers to the downtown scene. Only these young people arrive nostalgic, their sentimentality prepacked.
The yearning for what came before can be seen in many of the more interesting new bars described by Ocejo. They are run by free spirits – rather than nightlife chains – who aim to bring back some “old” New York.
One new spot lurks behind an unmarked entrance to recreate the romance of the Prohibition-era speakeasy. Another pays tribute to the history of lower Manhattan by selling drinks and cool clothing on a street “where immigrant seamstresses and tailors toiled in tiny tenement apartments and sweatshops”. Perhaps the most tender moment in the book comes when the proprietor of a bar serving classic cocktails meets a veteran bartender who teaches him to make several vintage libations and presents him with a copy of “the Trader Vic Rum Book from 1948”.
It all adds up to a curious state of urban affairs. New York has never been more popular, but more and more of the folks who find themselves downtown these days feel as if they have somehow missed the party.
The writer is the US national editor for the Financial Times
Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City, by Richard Ocejo, Princeton University Press, RRP$35/£24.95
Upscaling Downtown
From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City
Richard E. Ocejo
Editions
Hardcover 2015 37.50 31.95 ISBN9780691155166 272 pp. 6 x 9 1/4 8 line illus. 1 map.
Paperback 2014 22.95 18.95 ISBN9780691176314 272 pp. 6 x 9 1/4
E-book ISBN9781400852635
Add to Cart
Once known for slum-like conditions in its immigrant and working-class neighborhoods, New York City's downtown now features luxury housing, chic boutiques and hotels, and, most notably, a vibrant nightlife culture. While a burgeoning bar scene can be viewed as a positive sign of urban transformation, tensions lurk beneath, reflecting the social conflicts within postindustrial cities. Upscaling Downtown examines the perspectives and actions of disparate social groups who have been affected by or played a role in the nightlife of the Lower East Side, East Village, and Bowery. Using the social world of bars as windows into understanding urban development, Richard Ocejo argues that the gentrifying neighborhoods of postindustrial cities are increasingly influenced by upscale commercial projects, causing significant conflicts for the people involved.
Ocejo explores what community institutions, such as neighborhood bars, gain or lose amid gentrification. He considers why residents continue unsuccessfully to protest the arrival of new bars, how new bar owners produce a nightlife culture that attracts visitors rather than locals, and how government actors, including elected officials and the police, regulate and encourage nightlife culture. By focusing on commercial newcomers and the residents who protest local changes, Ocejo illustrates the contested and dynamic process of neighborhood growth.
Delving into the social ecosystem of one emblematic section of Manhattan, Upscaling Downtown sheds fresh light on the tensions and consequences of urban progress.
Richard E. Ocejo is assistant professor of sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. He is the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork.
More about this book
Resources
Chapter 1 [PDF]
Reviews
"Using bars as a barometer for gentrification, Ocejo explores the dynamics of change on New York City's Bowery, once a working-class neighborhood best known for its cheap hotels and skid-row denizens. . . . The lens on gentrification is unique, and the study contributes to a thriving body of work that explores the conflicts that emerge in formerly downtrodden neighborhoods when luxury housing, restaurants catering to a well-to-do crowd, and evolving concepts of quality of life displace long-term residents. . . . The strongly grounded analysis is enlivened by many interviews and casual conversations, illustrative of the hours of research and observation that informed the narrative and attest to the author's commitment to the project."--Choice
"Through this snapshot of several years in Bowery, Ocejo reveals much about meaning, power, and a specific kind of neighborhood change, happening (or happening soon) in an upscaling community near us all."--Zandria F. Robinson, City & Community
+ show more
Endorsements
"In Upscaling Downtown, Ocejo gives a wide view of commercial gentrification and the conflicts between different factions in the Lower East Side, East Village, and Bowery. He presents a broad and critical perspective on the contemporary consumer megacity and provides a window onto wider issues of urban renewal, planning, policing, and community."--Paul E. Willis, Princeton University
"A beautifully conceived and elegantly executed book that employs a magnifying glass to understand New York City. Focusing on bars in downtown Manhattan, Ocejo reveals the changing face of New York City in all its richness and complexity, enabling us to understand the key players in gentrification over time--old-timers, new arrivals, politicians, business owners, and activists--and how they interact and influence each other."--William B. Helmreich, author of The New York Nobody Knows
+ show more
+Table of Contents
PREFACE IX
INTRODUCTION Night and Day 1
CHAPTER 1 The Bowery and Its Bars 19
CHAPTER 2 Growing Nightlife Scenes 54
CHAPTER 3 Weaving a Nostalgia Narrative 86
CHAPTER 4 Entrepreneurial Spirits 117
CHAPTER 5 Regulating Nightlife Scenes 149
CHAPTER 6 The Limits of Local Democracy 181
CONCLUSION Upscaling New York 209
METHODOLOGICAL APPENDIX Studying the Social Ecosystem of Bars 221
NOTES 227
REFERENCES 245
INDEX 253
Subject Areas
Sociology
Political Science And International Relations
Masters of Craft
Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy
Richard E. Ocejo
Editions
Hardcover 2017 29.95 24.95 ISBN9780691165493 368 pp. 6 x 9 1/4 15 halftones.
E-book ISBN9781400884865
Add to Cart
How educated and culturally savvy young people are transforming traditionally low-status manual labor jobs into elite taste-making occupations
In today’s new economy—in which “good” jobs are typically knowledge or technology based—many well-educated and culturally savvy young men are instead choosing to pursue traditionally low-status manual labor occupations as careers. Masters of Craft looks at the renaissance of four such trades: bartending, distilling, barbering, and butchering.
In this in-depth and engaging book, Richard Ocejo takes you into the lives and workplaces of these people to examine how they are transforming these once-undesirable jobs into “cool” and highly specialized upscale occupational niches—and in the process complicating our notions about upward and downward mobility through work. He shows how they find meaning in these jobs by enacting a set of “cultural repertoires,” which include technical skills based on a renewed sense of craft and craftsmanship and an ability to understand and communicate that knowledge to others, resulting in a new form of elite taste-making. Ocejo describes the paths people take to these jobs, how they learn their chosen trades, how they imbue their work practices with craftsmanship, and how they teach a sense of taste to their consumers.
Focusing on cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale men’s barbers, and whole-animal butcher shop workers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and upstate New York, Masters of Craft provides new insights into the stratification of taste, gentrification, and the evolving labor market in today’s postindustrial city.
Richard E. Ocejo is associate professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His books include Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City (Princeton).
More about this book
Richard Ocejo on Marketplace
A Q&A with Richard E. Ocejo
Resources
Introduction [PDF]
Reviews
"A sociologist walks in a bar . . . and discovers the soul of a new economy . . . Mr. Ocejo has a good eye and ear. He has talked to a lot of people. And his book is full of acutely heard and closely observed details."--William L. Hamilton, Wall Street Journal
"Why are upscale versions of traditional manufacturing and service jobs considered hip, desirable, and cool? Ocejo, a sociology professor, examines the ‘urban village model’ that has revitalized urban areas. He looks at four elements of gentrification--craft breweries, barber shops, whole-animal butcher shops, and cocktail bars. . . . Using his own field experiences and interviews with business owners and workers, the author identifies transformations in the U.S. cultural elite that have led to this new service economy, one that is strikingly male-dominated. He uses Chelsea Market in Manhattan as an example of how the reappearance of businesses formerly considered essential, but not prestigious, in exclusive and expensive form mirrors the gentrification of the neighborhoods that once supported them in their previous incarnations. The book reads well. . . . Sociologists and others with a serious interest in hipster culture will learn much from it."--Publishers Weekly
+ show more
Endorsements
"This innovative book immerses readers in the social worlds of artisanal service workers and the tony, omnivorous taste communities they serve, and deepens our understanding of the possibilities of sustaining careers based on authentic and transparent client encounters in a precarious urban economy. Ocejo offers new typologies of artisanal career paths and worker-client relationships that will benefit future scholarship and guide aspiring freelance artisans as they master their craft."--Daniel B. Cornfield, Vanderbilt University, author of Beyond the Beat: Musicians Building Community in Nashville
"A wonderful contribution to the field. Masters of Craft is an engaging and well-written addition to the emerging literature on aesthetic labor and the changing social meaning of jobs--particularly now in the postrecession era, when many manual labor jobs have disappeared. I truly enjoyed this book."—Yasemin Besen-Cassino, author of Consuming Work: Youth Labor in America
+ show more
+Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface. The Daily Grind xi
Introduction. A Stroll through the Market 1
Part I 23
1 The Cocktail Renaissance 25
2 Distilling Authenticity 50
3 Working on Men 76
4 Show the Animal 101
Part II 127
5 How Middle-Class Kids Want Working-Class Jobs 129
6 The Science and the Art 159
7 Service Teaching 190
8 Getting the Job 225
Epilogue. Outcomes, Implications, and Concluding Thoughts 250
Methodological Appendix 267
Notes 285
References 323
Index 339
Subject Areas
Sociology