This page was created by Ben Rearick.
Introduction
I grew up in West Richland, Washington -- the fourth of the "Tri-Cities" located in southeastern Washington State. Those who have even heard of this somewhat remote cluster of towns are most likely to associate it with its nuclear history than luxury products. However, the Washington State wine industry is playing an increasingly important role in the state economy, with the Columbia Valley vastly monopolizing wine production in the state. The wine industry has slowly gained influence in Eastern Washington life. Vineyards and tasting rooms now line the highways, as the region strains to bring a tourist industry to the arid landscape. Living in the Columbia Valley, I would often heard others explain Washington wine industry's success by comparing the region to Bordeaux -- a famous French wine region. In this project, I investigate the impacts of this land-based perspective on human labor and economic activity. I suggest that understanding the multi-faceted ways that place is imagined and rhetorically positioned will shed light on local and global human networks.
Goals of the project
The goal of this project is to examine the concept and experience of locality within globalizing economies and information networks. This book investigates the history of the Columbia Valley AVA as a means of understanding placed-ness, offering insight into the commodified and colonial influences on the local. To understand the ways in which we "place" ourselves and others, I investigate the underlying assumption behind viticultural areas: the concept of terroir, or that specific agricultural zones will yield different flavors, just by virtue of location. I aim to examine terroir as a way of conceiving of the local, acknowledging both its commodified and colonizing purposes. Questions that drive this research include: To what extent has terroir affected our understandings of place and locality? And, can we leverage this understanding of the local for decolonizing and pedagogical purposes?
How does this fit into the digital humanities?
While this project heavily focuses on material concerns, like land, water rights, agriculture, and consumer products, I see my methodology following the work of digital humanists. In particular, I take up the practice of reframing that was put forth in the work of Kim Gallon, Duarte, and Anita Say Chan. In particular, this project was inspired by Chan's Networking Peripheries, a book that looks at the role of the intellectual property laws in rural Peru. In that work, Chan explores narratives "departing from conventional frameworks that presume digital imaginaries and futures as necessarily -- or even best -- represented by innovation centers" (xi). With this work, I seek to identify universalized narratives of place, and look for the minor narratives that have been marginalized and ignored in their wake."Understanding technology -- and, in particular, digital technology -- requires understanding the conditions under which innovation occurs" (Duarte 11)
