Food Between the Country and the City Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape

At a time when the relationship between ‘the country' and ‘the city' is in flux worldwide, the value and meanings of food associated with both places continue to be debated. Building upon the foundation of Raymond Williams' classic work, The Country and the City, this volume examines how conceptions of the country and the city invoked in relation to food not only reflect their changing relationship but have also been used to alter the very dynamics through which countryside and cities, and the food grown and eaten within them, are produced and sustained.

Leading scholars in the study of food offer ethnographic studies of peasant homesteads, family farms, community gardens, state food industries, transnational supermarkets, planning offices, tourist boards, and government ministries in locales across the globe. This fascinating collection demonstrates that, whether categorized as rural or urban, food around the world today has been shaped by, and in turn has shaped, historical processes through which the country, the city, and the relationship between these places and their foods have continually, and sometimes dramatically, been reconstituted.

This text provides vital new insight into the contested dynamics of food and will be key reading for upper-level students and scholars of food studies, anthropology, history and geography.

Nuno Domingos is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, and a Research Associate of the Food Studies Centre, SOAS, University of London, UK.

José Manuel Sobral is Senior Research Fellow at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, where he is currently the Director of the PhD Program in Social Anthropology.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology, and Chair of the Food Studies Centre, at SOAS, University of London, UK.

Introduction: Approaching Food and Foodways Between the Country and the City Through the Work of Raymond Williams
Nuno Domingos and José Manuel Sobral, both Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, and Harry G. West, SOAS, University of London, UK

Section I: Of the Country and Its Food

Conflicting Wine Narratives: ‘Pleasant Perspectives’ and the Struggles in the Construction of Alentejo Wine
Nuno Domingos, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Embodying Country-City Relations: the Chola Cuencana in Highland Ecuador
Emma-Jayne Abbots, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK

Bringing the City to the Country: Supermarket Expansion, Food Practices and Aesthetics in Rural South Africa
Elizabeth Hull, SOAS, University of London, UK

Bringing It All Back Home: Reconnecting the Country and the City Through Heritage Food Tourism in the French Auvergne
Harry G. West, SOAS, University of London, UK

Section II: Of the City and Its Food

Coming to Terms with Urban Agriculture: a Self Critique
Laura B. Delind, Michigan State University, USA

Urban Hunger and the Home Village: How Lilongwe's Migrant Poor Stay Food Secure
Johan Pottier, SOAS, University of London, UK

Perceptions of the 'Country' through the Migration of 'City'-grown Crops: Guinean Food in Bissau and in Lisbon
Maria Abranches, University of Sussex, UK

Section III: Of the Nation and Its Food

The Country, the Nation and the Region in Representations of Portuguese Food and Cuisine
José Manuel Sobral, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Hazz Al-quhuf: an Urban Satire on Peasant Life and Food from 17th Century Egypt
Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck and SOAS, University of London, UK

Reflecting Authenticity: 'Grandmother's Yogurt' Between Bulgaria and Japan
Maria Yotova, University of Shiga Prefecture, Japan

Unpacking the Mediterranean Diet: Agriculture, Food and Health
Monica Truninger and Dulce Freire, both Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Bibliography
Index