Desigualdades y Fronteras Sociales en la Configuracion de la Vitivinicultura Mendocina

This thesis presents an analysis of the modalities and dimensions of social inequality within a particular socio-historical configuration, as well as the mechanisms of power, legitimization and questioning of these inequalities. The case study is the restructuring of the wine sector in the province of Mendoza (Argentina). The proposed approach draws on the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias, with an emphasis on the analysis of the “agroindustrial chain” as a social and historical configuration. In this case, it is one that has recently been reconfigured, modifying the correlations of forces between social groups. Specifically, this study explores the way in which diverse social and symbolic boundaries, asymmetries and social distances and forms of social categorization are presently constituted. I examine the ways in which determined practices and meanings of the activity are constituted as hegemonic, along with existing related disputes. This analysis focuses on three interrelated dimensions of social inequalities that, following extensive fieldwork, emerge as significant: the socioeconomic, territorial and symbolic dimensions. The complex interplay between these three dimensions of inequality form the core of this analysis.