Sustainable Development and Sustainable Wine New Zealand: Bridging Neoliberal Statecraft and Locally Appropriate Development

Abstract

James C. Scott argues that states require schematic knowledge of local realities. This standardized knowledge produces one-size-fits-all development solutions, which can fail to adequately account for context and thus result in environmental and social destruction. Sustainable development uses statecraft within the hegemony of neoliberalism, addressing environmental, social, and economic issues with market mechanisms. Neoliberal statecraft approaches face opposition politically—from the global justice movement that opposes unlimited economic growth—and methodologically—from Participatory Approach and Sustainable Rural Livelihood advocates who argue the need for locally situated development. Framing this conflict within weak and strong sustainability models, this research explores if top-down, neoliberal, one-size-fits-all development can work in locally appropriate ways. To this end, this research explores the interplay between regional council water management and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand certification (SWNZ), a market-based regulatory mechanism. Interviews with twelve wine producers established that SWNZ is a one-size-fits-all scheme that is neoliberal at an institutional but not at a grassroots level. Furthermore, SWNZ fosters locally appropriate practices in three main ways: by requiring compliance with regional councils; by directing wine producers to consider their environmental needs through ‘good practice’ questions; and by offering New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard reports that provide wine producers with a contextualized best practice model. These insights provide a better understanding of sustainable wine growing in New Zealand and also how a weakly sustainable, neoliberal framework can produce strongly sustainable, non-neoliberal outcomes.