Not a Matter of Fame: Constructing the Local as Brand Value

Bologna—a Northern Italian city, renowned for its University and its food—and the marshalling of its cultural value to produce economic value in the food commodity chain, is the territory of our chapter. We shall, in fact, consider DegustiBo, a local seal of quality set up by the Bologna Province, and the way it organizes the local in an attempt to help small, local, traditional food producers to face global foodways, culture and chains. Focusing on the network constituted by DegustiBo members, has allowed to consider the working of a cluster of actors involved in the consolidation of the gastronomic identity of Bologna in the field of quality food chains in Italy. In this chapter, we shall consider the way in which the local is constructed as a cultural value, marshalled to sustain the quality of products and preparations, as producers and distributors encounter consumers and are concerned with their experience of consumption being part of the process of value creation in the food chain.