An analysis of Protected Geographic Indications (PGI\'s) that seek commonalities while respecting specificities (In French)

To address a gap in the literature that deals with official quality labels, the article proposes a methodology for analysis and a conceptual framework that are subsequently applied to two such quality labels from the south west region of France : ‘Volaille Fermières des Landes’ and ‘Jambon de Bayonne’. The proposed framework seeks to facilitate a comparative and historical analysis that will allow general lessons to be derived from a detailed study of individual configurations. To do so, the research question regarding the creation and development of these labels is positioned in the economic and political spheres. This allows for an examination of both the means of productive organisation and the means of legitimacy that are mobilised by the industry sectors that are concerned by such quality labels as PGI (Protected Geographic Indicator). The authors consider the PGI labels are linked to sectors or sub-sectors of activity whose structure can be interpreted using four basic conventions: effort, quality, state and finance. These conventions are declined more or less specifically depending on the sector or sub-sector. The analysis of the PGI labels thus focuses on the specificities of the interpretation of these conventions in each case in order to determine the degree of continuity and/or discontinuity that the adoption of the label entails. When applied to the two cases and their recent evolutions, the framework highlights in particular the key role of the quality convention. Destabilising this convention emerges as a major factor leading to economic and political restructuring of the sector concerned.