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Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic research conducted between Sardinia and Provence, this paper analyses the olive oil sector as an “interface in transformation,” where processes of standardization and sensory forms of knowledge reconfigure rural territories through dynamics of valorization and local negotiation

Paper long abstract

This paper analyses the olive oil sector as an interface of multiple possibilities, understood as a rural space invested by economic, institutional, and symbolic projections oriented toward its transformation and valorization (Tsing, 2005; Franquesa, 2018). Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Sardinia and Provence, it examines the role of olive-growing territories in contemporary capitalist reconfigurations, approaching them not as marginal peripheries but as strategic spaces.

Since the 1990s, the olive oil sector has undergone processes of professionalization and standardization driven by European agricultural policies, international institutions—particularly the International Olive Council (IOC)—and the development of markets based on quality, authenticity, and territorial embeddedness.

The analysis highlights the growing articulation between technical forms of knowledge—mechanization, quality standards, processing protocols—and sensory forms of knowledge related to tasting, olfaction, and the “making of taste” (Candau, 2000; 2016). This articulation contributes to the construction of olive oil as a “total product” (Mauss, 1925; Baudrillard, 1970), simultaneously a commodity, a heritage object, and a sensory experience. The research also emphasizes the role of new professional mediators who participate in the normalization of practices and in the embodiment of global market norms within bodies, gestures, and perceptions (Leroi-Gourhan, 1964; Warnier, 2009).

However, these transformations generate frictions between processes of standardization and local attachments. Rural actors negotiate, reinterpret, or contest these dynamics, making olive-growing ruralities a privileged site for observing tensions between domination, value production, and local forms of appropriation.