VQA: Self-Regulation as Identity Construction in the Ontario Wine Industry

Abstract

This thesis investigates the intersection of a local place with the forces of globalization which destabilized existing social, cultural and economic sources of meaning and identity. The research setting is the Ontario wine industry, which appeared to be on the verge of collapse in the 1980s because of changing consumer tastes, an adverse GATT trade ruling and the effects of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. The research draws on semi-structured interviews with wine industry participants who were instrumental in the construction of the new identity and on documentary research including corporate documents, public reports and media articles to trace the evolution of the VQA from a project identity to a legitimizing identity. The introduction of voluntary industry self-regulation through the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), an appellation of origin system, was a local response to the inclusion/exclusion logic inherent in globalization. A small sector of the industry mobilized to construct an alternative collective identity, not of resistance to global forces, but of accommodation to them. In a political expression of their collective interests, cottage wineries operating on the margins of the industry, took advantage of existing resources in the local and international domain to craft an identity for quality wines based on 100% local grapes. Institutionalizing the new identity meant negotiating ongoing relationships of power and influence to become a political actor with the authority to shape the content and meaning of a this identity. The process led to transformation of the industry and local place, and acquired legitimacy through provincial legislation that appointed the VQA as the Wine Authority. This conferred on Vintners Quality Alliance Ontario the powers of the state to enforce industry compliance with the standards which comprise the identity.