Craft Industries

Wine-making or place-making. The role of the craft wine industry in rural revitalization

Global News Morning Halifax – Craft Wine Success in Nova Scotia

Winemaking and place-making? Nova Scotia’s craft wine industry is revitalizing rural areas

This research seeks to understand how the craft wine industry, through the creation and accumulation of skills, has played a key role in reversing population decline in rural areas of Nova Scotia and transforming them into vibrant communities. In this project, we identify craft-based industries as those that require a particular set of knowledge and skills, which are typically tacit in nature, for the production of goods. We argue that these characteristics of craft-based industries play a key role in innovation and place-making and that they also contribute to community and economic development. The main aim of this research is to analyze how rural place-making was collectively achieved by actors in the Nova Scotia rural craft wine industry through attracting resources and accumulating knowledge and skills to innovate. We seek to increase our understanding of how the craft wine industry has the potential to reverse the ebb tide of young people and attract resources, transforming the capacity of local communities. We elaborate on how local factors (e.g., local culture and identity) play an important role in this process as a source of social cohesion. This study has important implications for communities of actors within craft-based industries. It will enhance our understanding of their ability to empower social innovation and reverse the shrinking of rural areas by attracting investment and skilled human capital that reshape rural areas into vibrant communities. 

• Who are the main actors in the craft wine industry of rural Nova Scotia? 
• What roles do they play in the accumulation of knowledge and skills to generate innovations? 
• What is the process of knowledge and skills creation in the craft wine industry?  
• What is the role of local factors in contributing to knowledge-sharing and innovation in the craft wine industry? 
• How can this industry capitalize on existing strengths to bring greater social and economic benefits to rural Nova Scotia? 

 

The research team in this project includes Dr. Claudia De Fuentes, Dr. Jahan Ara Peerally, Dr. David Doloureux, Dr. Steven Quilley, and Fariba Seyedjafarrangraz.

Research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council