Conclusion

This book analyses the rationales and the mechanisms at work for qualifying goods. In the global competition process, Geographical Indications (GIs) are one among many possible marketing tools. They are institutional devices anchored in the social construction of markets in the sense given by economic sociology. Philippe Steiner recalls, in Chapter 2, how institutions ‘think’ and ‘control’ food markets, which he analyses as ‘special markets’. The historical architecture of food commodification is based on alimentary representations and daily practices contributing to the building of many organized markets. Fictitious goods and ‘biopolitics’ are at work in our modern way of life. Under this perspective, market regulations and regulations by the markets are embedded: social, economic and political practices and public or private norms constitute multidimensional architectures.