Imbibo Ergo Sum: New Belgium Brewery and the Myths of McEmpire (Joint Top Paper).

This essay (re)situates Ritzer's concept of McDonaldization within the context of Hardt and Negri's concept of Empire. The result of this combination is McEmpire, or McDonaldization in the age of Empire. We argue that New Belgium, a Colorado-based craft brewery, communicates the myth of localism, or anti-globalization, in the age of Empire, and that this communicated myth produces a catalyst for the multitude's resistance of Empire. Ritzer's modernist model of McDonaldization did not allow people or companies to resist the McDonaldization phenomenon, but as the shift from modernity to postmodernity takes place, new networks of power are being developed that both establish the conditions of Empire and allow for resistance against Empire. These new networks allow alt-commerce companies, like New Belgium, to compete with the powerful global corporations by selling the myth of anti-globalization. New Belgium, we argue, uses the current transitional period between modernity and postmodernity to construct a nostalgic myth of the pre-postmodern condition. This myth creates the catalyst for resistance against the globalization of the food industry. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]