Globalization and Standardization: Revival of the Bulgarian Wine Industry (Research Brief)

My research focused on the transformation of the Bulgarian wine industry and its cultural implication to understand agricultural developments and transnational governance.
What compels a marginal wine producing country to continue to produce wine in the competitive and saturated global wine market? Currently, the Bulgarian wine industry is undergoing the most interesting changes following the restructuring of the formerly state-owned wineries and the joining of the EU which qualifies it for the structural funds. I conducted fieldwork at two local wineries, assisted a local wine competition with global wine experts, interviewed officials on agricultural reform, and researched archives to map out the complexity of the transformation process.

Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.

Yuson Jung, of the Univ. of Chicago/Harvard University, was a 2008-09 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.