Paper Short Abstract:

The paper argues that while rootedness in postsocialist East Central Europe very often creates exclusion and intolerance to otherness, the post-socialist development in winemaking and valuation of wine also shows how market and globalisation serve for the inclusive ‘emancipation via rootedness’.

Paper Abstract:

This paper proposes to look at the experiences and social conditions of rootedness under post-socialist transformations of East Central Europe among amateur and professional wine makers. The empirical focus is on wine value and wine rituals in Slovakia, the post-socialist country where the category of people defined as post-peasants, nominally urban employees of factories and dependents of bureaucratic institutions, prevail in the society and very much value the country. Three rituals related to rootedness -- the regional exhibition of hobby wine makers, the celebration of village wines, and the international wine competition -- pave the way for an argument about how global transformation emancipates the people by rooting them in the country. The paper argues that while rootedness in East Central Europe very often creates exclusion and intolerance to otherness, the post-socialist development in winemaking and valuation of wine also shows how market and globalisation serve for the inclusive ‘emancipation via rootedness’.