Looking good: consumption and the problems of self-production

"This article considers the anxieties and risks that attend the process of self-production in the context of consumption. Drawing from interviews with a small sample of British young adults — white, middle-class, university-educated — the article examines how material practices and discursive strategies resonate with theoretical accounts of the nexus of consumption, identity and individualization. The analysis highlights how respondents discursively cope with anxieties and risks associated with the question of style, the problem of conformity, the desire for confidence and the negotiation of gender. In doing so, the article indicates ways in which the process of self-production in contemporary consumer societies may be less reflexive, and more socially conservative, than some accounts of individualization would suggest." [author's abstract

The question of ‘alternatives’ within food and drink markets and marketing: introduction to the special issue

The question of 'alternatives' within food and drink markets and marketing: introduction to the special issu

Product patriotism: How consumption practices make and maintain national identity

In today’s society, globalization and global flows are ubiquitous and undeniable. Consequently, it is possible to question the role and importance of national identity in consumption choices. This research inductively develops a theory for product patriotism, defined as how consumers construe their identity through nationally-iconic product consumption. A typology is proposed, outlining four possible virtual national identity positions consumers may occupy relative to their stocks of cultural capital, relational orientation toward the nation and situational contingencies. Product patriotism as a framework is distinct from past research that a) narrowly focuses on spectacular or positive forms of nationalistic consumption, b) segments consumers based on nationalistic or patriotic traits, and c) focuses mostly on brands. The novel framework of product patriotism provides new insight into the social patterning of consumers’ reflexive, negotiated decoding of national identities, the dynamism of national identity, and the enduring significance of consumption when enacting national identities

Towards a sociology from wine and vina aperta

In considering the wisdom of pursuing the development of a sociology of wine, I outline several dangers associated with sub-disciplinary specialization, including overlapping risks of silo-ization, sequestration, and scope and process reduction. In particular, I discuss the attendant risk of thinking of wine as vinum clausum, that is, as a closed and static object. In contrast, I outline an open, processual approach to wine as vina aperta, and consider three, interrelated features of conceptualizing wine as processual, interconnected, and constituted through interdependence between humans and the physical world, others, and themselves. Drawing on a number of process-oriented sociologists, and a range of existing sociological research on wine and related topics, I advocate for a sociology from wine, that is, for wine as an invaluable point of departure for a historically- and processually-oriented sociology

Taste as market practice: the example of “natural” wine

This paper adopts a practice-oriented approach to address gaps in existing knowledge of the significance of cultural producers’ and intermediaries’ practices of taste for the construction and organization of markets. Using the example of the cultural field of “natural” wine, I propose how taste operates as a logic of practice, generating market actions in relation to the aesthetic regime of provenance. Methodology/approach: The paper sets out the conceptual relationship between aesthetic regimes and practices of taste. The discussion draws from interpretive research on natural wine producers and cultural intermediaries involving 40 interviews with natural wine makers, retailers, sommeliers, and writers based in New York, Western Australia, the Champagne region, and the Cape Winelands. Findings: Three dimensions of how taste is translated into action are examined: as a device of division, which establishes a fuzzy logic of resemblance; as a device of operation, which provides an intuitive platform for shaping the means of production; and as a device of coordination, which enables an embedded experience of trust. Originality/value: The paper’s discussion of dispositions, affect, intuition, and pattern identification provide new insights into the translation of taste into action, and the macro-organization of markets. I argue for attention to how cultural producers and cultural intermediaries are mobilized through their habitual sense of taste, shifting the focus away from consumers to those whose market actions are largely self- and peer-referential. This is important for understanding processes of market development and value construction

South African wine farm worker heritage stories and the potential for ethical value generation: pilot study findings report

The pilot study focuses on the potential for South African wine farmworkers to take on a more active role as co-creators of winery brand value, and for wine farmworkers’ heritage stories to generate ethical value in a major export market (the UK). The project aims to: develop a multi-stakeholder perspective on South African wine farmworkers’ heritage stories (reflecting wine farmworkers and wine producers, and export market (UK) wine consumers and intermediaries); demonstrate the potential of farmworkers as active co-creators of winery ethical brand value, and of farmworker heritage stories for ethical value creation in a major export market (UK). A review of research on how ethical value generation and value claims are articulated in the premium wine market highlighted the shortcomings of certifications as devices for product differentiation. In contrast, research underscores the power of evidence-led, credible, authentic provenance stories for achieving competitive advantage for premium wineries. Provenance stories are understood as outcomes of co-creation processes involving multiple actors all along the value chain, yet farmworkers remain a largely absent and unacknowledged group of stakeholders—both as subjects of provenance stories and as storytellers. Findings are then reported from the five-phased qualitative, interpretivist research design, which explored the ways in which heritage, place and provenance shape South African wines’ presence in the marketplace, and the experiences, perceptions and evaluations of a network of stakeholders—farmworkers, producers, consumers, intermediaries—involved in the realization of brand value for South African wines. Key findings are summarized along with the potential implications and opportunities suggested as to the potential of farmworkers to be powerful frontline storytellers of evidence-led, credible, authentic provenance stories

Aesthetic logics, terroir and the lamination of grower champagne

This paper examines how aesthetic institutional logics and objects shape markets. We focus on the champagne field, for which dominant category conventions include luxury, celebration and protected regional origin (exemplified by grande marque champagne). Our attention, however, is on more recent, alternative conventions, such as site-specific terroir and passionate artisanality (exemplified by ‘grower champagne’). In analyzing how trade associations, small-scale producers and wine writers represent champagne, we offer an approach that is sensitive to both top-down and bottom-up dynamics of logics. Drawing on the concept of lamination to provide a processual bridge between category conventions and institutional objects (and thus logics), we find that representations from the three actor groups build up—layering and (at least partially) overlapping—such that both dominant and alternative frames come to shape the champagne field. We suggest how divergent representational practices may be directed at and by a common aesthetic institutional object

Seeking a Competitive Advantage in Wine Tourism: Heritage and Storytelling at the Cellar-Door.

The nature of the cellar-door experience varies between wineries and regions. While the literature has identified heritage, storytelling and authenticity as important concepts regarding interaction with tourists at the cellar-door, there is a need to understand how they are operationalised by winery staff, including their strategic objectives. This article aims to explore how New World wineries are using their heritage to engage with tourists at their cellar-doors. The approach is qualitative, based on long semi-structured phenomenological interviews with eleven representatives of south-eastern Australia wineries to understand their lived experience. Findings suggest that the cellar-door represents an important opportunity to reinforce heritage branding and differentiate the winery from its competitors. Different forms of heritage were emphasised by participants, including family and ethnic heritage. Storytelling was seen as a useful strategy to engage with tourists and the importance of authenticity, both intrinsic and existential, was emphasised as a means of competitive advantage

Mobile trust regimes: modes of attachment in an age of banal omnivorousness

The twenty-first century rise of culturally omnivorous tastes and classifications proffers a new dilemma for how markets create attachments and achieve trust for global consumers. Consumer entities must be both globally circulatable and offer a sense of localized authenticity without compromising either. Drawing from research on market trust and attachment, this article introduces the concept of mobile trust regimes to account for how sets of actors and repertoires attempt to address this tension. Through two case studies from gastronomic industries—food halls and natural wine—we investigate the devices of mobility used to facilitate the global circulation of the local. These include standardized aesthetic and affective templates communicated through physical décor, recurrent narratives, and social media curation. We argue that the concept of mobile trust regimes helps clarify two key issues in contemporary consumer culture: tensions between homogenization and heterogenization and how the symbolic value of omnivorous tastes becomes institutionalized and even banal

Innovation Opportunities and Digital Storytelling: An Exploratory Study of the Midlands and North Wine Region. Report of Findings

This report discusses findings from an exploratory study of digital storytelling in the context of the Midlands and North wine region of the UK, carried out by CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster of Sheffield Hallam University. Section 1 introduces the context to the project: the importance of storytelling and storytellers for small-scale wineries, and the ways in which the Coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally disrupted small-scale wineries’ typical marketing practices, routes to market, and approaches to engaging with their consumers. These conditions form the background to the project aims, which are to: • scope the current state of play of Midlands and North regional wineries’ digital marketing tools and content; • identify innovation opportunities through digital storytelling. To deliver on these aims, a mixed method, cross-sectional study was conducted via desk research, a qualitative content analysis ‘audit’ of regional wineries’ digital marketing content, and an online survey and semi-structured interviews with winery representatives. Section 2 reviews insights from existing research on: storytelling and the generation of value for small-scale wines; two scales of stories, for individual wineries and for regions; the Midlands and North wine and tourism consumer. Sections 3 reports on the digital marketing audit, reviewing main digital platforms, key digital innovations and innovation opportunities since the start of the pandemic; and ongoing interest in further digital development and support. Section 4 focuses on identifying common ground for an emergent, credible regional wine story that resonates with the region’s winery stakeholders, in relation to shared attributes across regional winery’s individual external-facing stories (re. family, provenance, and diversity) and shared internal perceptions of the Midlands and North region (regional confidence, collaboration, and difference). Section 5 reviews key takeaways from the research, highlighting key attributes that might underpin a 'local, regional destination' story for the wineries of the Midlands and North, focused on artisanal, authentic wines and wine experiences; family, community and connection with and for local/regional wine consumers; and diversity and difference through small-scale producers who work with diverse grape varieties and styles to offer wines to be valued for their difference from what is available on the supermarket shelf, or elsewhere across English and Welsh wine