The socio-technical alliance of Argentine quality wine: how Mendoza's viticulture functions between the local and the global

POLLY MACLAINE PONT; HERNÁN THOMAS

Science, Technology & Human Values

SAGE

Lugar: Los Angeles; Año: 2012 vol. 37 p. 627 - 652

0162-2439

Constructivist research in STS is committed to revealing the heterogeneity of technological change and the fluid boundaries between the elements involved. Its major theories, the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT), have however both been criticized for limiting themselves to the micro-level of cases, impeding a structural analysis of technological systems. This paper seeks to bridge any such divides. We research the recent changes in the viticulture of Mendoza, Argentina, which underwent radical changes over the past decades: once governed by low-cost yield maximization, grape production now revolves around 'quality'. To show how the particular quality definition developed, we depart from a social-constructivist framework, following the socio-technical shaping of problem-solution relationships across the wine production system. To include relevant social groups from different settings around the world, we gradually incorporate the ANT concepts of obligatory passage points, enrollment, convergence, delegation and codes into the analysis. Combined into the concept of  'socio-technical alliance', our analysis follows the dual process of creating agreement while establishing heterogeneous practices across settings at different levels. It shows that functioning involves alliance building, and highlights the hybridity and continuous dynamics of systems at large.