Abstract
The chapter uses the example of fine wine in China to make the case for figurational sociology as an approach to understanding market development and dynamics. The chapter first explores the contemporary context of wine in China, calling attention to the extraordinary developments that have made China one of the top ten wine producing and consuming countries in the world. The chapter then provides an introduction to some of the conceptual contributions from the work of Norbert Elias (1978, 1994; Elias and Scotson 1994), particularly in regard to established-outsider relations and the significance of status, prestige and modes of civility in shaping figurations such as markets. The discussion then draws on observations and findings from recent research on wine and China, particularly in relation to elite Chinese wine buyers and investors, the emerging Chinese middle class and Chinese wine intermediaries.
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Smith Maguire, J. (2017). Wine and China: Making Sense of an Emerging Market with Figurational Sociology. In: Connolly, J., Dolan, P. (eds) The Social Organisation of Marketing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51571-7_2
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