This book seeks to set GIs in the context of the overall development of today’s economies and societies as marked by globalization and the interaction of cultures that this entails. GIs are products that are both very ancient in terms of their ancestral function and very modern in terms of what is at stake. GIs provide a fine example of how the economic development of the planet might be envisioned so that it takes account of this classic opposition and the complexity of the main issues involved. . One assumption made here is that in the future we will see a trade economy increasingly structured by quality standards. These standards will be reached and managed through the cooperation of both public and private entities, a situation described by the term ‘quality fora’, which is explained and discussed in Chapter 8. Among the variety of such arrangements that can be expected to emerge, GIs provide a particularly interesting and forward-looking example. The book is divided into two parts. The first (Chapters 1–6) sets out the findings of a decade of research into GIs in Europe in the global context. The second part of the book is based on the existence of GIs as a sector in itself (validated, potentially at least, by the market and its externalities) in the context of globalization.
