Geographical indication building process for sharr cheese (Kosovo): “Inside insights” on sustainability

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the reflection on sustainability in the field of Geographical Indications (GI). GIs are instruments for organizing collective action that have great interpretative flexibility. They are mobilized by a set of qualifying actors of differing natures, with diverse and sometimes divergent interests. For this reason, we focus on how the dimension of sustainability emerges from a collective learning process. Based on the approaches developed by Organization Studies, this article describes and analyzes the process of creating a GI for Sharr Cheese, a Balkan seasonal sheep pastoral cheese highly typical of a mountain range in Kosovo (This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.). The authors occupied an embedded research position in this learning process, from 2015 to 2019. The article describes boundary work carried out by the facilitators of collective action (brokers) within experimental spaces during the Gl-building process. It analyzes how environmental accountability within the Sharr Cheese GI emerges from a strategic knowledge-brokering process and intensive institutional work.