Intra-professional Hierarchy Construction Processes: Case of The Profession of Specialty Coffee Barista in Saint Petersburg

This research paper is devoted to the study of the processes of constructing the intra-professional hierarchy of the barista specialty of coffee shops in St. Petersburg, as well as the criteria based on which the formal and informal hierarchies are built. Coffee is one of the most consumed products in the world, and specialty coffee shops are an actively developing business in the world and in Russia over the past few years. Barista of specialty coffee houses are people who put a lot of effort into mastering the profession. It is believed that representatives of the same profession may have different professional status depending on various factors, and not only formal, but also informal hierarchies can be formed within professional groups. The relevance of this study lies in a small number of scientific studies relating to the hierarchy of the specialty coffee professional community in general and the intra-professional hierarchy of the specialty coffee barista profession in particular. The importance of studying the processes of constructing a hierarchy of specialty coffee barista lies in the possibility of forming certain models of interaction in the professional barista community, which may differ from models in other professional communities. This study discusses the existing criteria for the formation of a formal and informal intra-professional barista hierarchy in various specialty coffee shops in St. Petersburg and the differences between these criteria in various specialty coffee shops by conducting and analyzing interviews. Based on the results of the analysis, the most general criteria for the formation of the formal and informal hierarchies of the barista specialty coffee houses were formulated, as well as the possible formal and informal hierarchies were visualized.