From Outcast to Game Changer: The Re-Invention and De-Stigmatization of Australian Wine

Theorizing core-stigmatization as a form of status, situated below the legitimacy threshold, we address de-stigmatization and status elevation of an entire market category as a staged process involving five interrelated mechanisms: Reducing Attention, Highbrow Self- Invention, Middlebrow Self-Invention, Boundary Work and Endorsement Work. Our study is based on the analysis of archival material supplemented by primary data of interviews and field visits in the Australian wine industry. By introducing status work as an agentic endeavor to redefine the social meaning of a category, its boundaries, and, thus, its status position, we contribute to the literatures on stigma, status and categorization from a social symbolic work perspective.