O papel das organizações sociais na construção dos mercados vinícolas familiares da Serra Gaúcha

The objective of this study is to demonstrate and analyze the role of social organizations within the context of family-run viticulture in the Serra Gaúcha region, examining their actions regarding the social construction of markets and their interfaces with process of the regional development. To this end, the research employed a non-probabilistic sampling method known as "snowball sampling," directly covering 12 families across 10 individual family wineries and indirectly encompassing 780 families whose market-building activities are linked to two family-based wine cooperatives. The results revealed a set of twelve entities operating with varying levels of intensity and at different stages of the social construction of markets and regional development processes. This scenario arises because the organizations' activities are heterogeneous, fragmented, and insufficiently coordinated, thereby limiting the collective construction of markets. Furthermore, within this same context of the social construction of family wine markets, there are production units that do not even recognize the organizations involved in these initiatives. Keywords: family farming markets; viticulture; regional and rural development; social organizations. Serra Gaúcha.