Ethical Eating in the Postsocialist and Socialist World / Edition 1

by Yuson Jung, Jakob A. Klein, Melissa L. Caldwell

Overview

Current discussions of the ethics around alternative food movements—concepts such as "local," "organic," and "fair trade"—tend to focus on their growth and significance in advanced capitalist societies. In this groundbreaking contribution to critical food studies, editors Yuson Jung, Jakob A. Klein, and Melissa L. Caldwell explore what constitutes "ethical food" and "ethical eating" in socialist and formerly socialist societies. With essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and geographers, this politically nuanced volume offers insight into the origins of alternative food movements and their place in today's global economy. Collectively, the essays cover discourses on food and morality; the material and social practices surrounding production, trade, and consumption; and the political and economic power of social movements in Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Lithuania, Russia, and Vietnam. Scholars and students will gain important historical and anthropological perspective on how the dynamics of state-market-citizen relations continue to shape the ethical and moral frameworks guiding food practices around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520277403
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/21/2014
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Yuson Jung is Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Wayne State University.

Jakob A. Klein is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Melissa L. Caldwell is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the author of Dacha Idylls: Living Organically in Russia’s Countryside and Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia.

 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Ethical Eating and (Post)socialist Alternatives
Jakob A. Klein, Yuson Jung, and Melissa L. Caldwell

1. Homogenizing Europe: Raw Milk, Risk Politics, and Moral Economies in Post-Socialist Lithuania
Diana Mincyte

2. The Moral Significance of Food in Reform-Era Rural China
Ellen Oxfeld

3. Placing Alternative Food Networks: Farmers’ Markets in Post-Soviet Vilnius, Lithuania
Renata Blumberg

4. Ambivalent Consumers and the Limits of Certification: Organic Foods in Postsocialist Bulgaria
Yuson Jung

5. Connecting with the Countryside? “Alternative” Food Movements with Chinese Characteristics
Jakob A. Klein

6. Vegetarian Ethics and Politics in Late-Socialist Vietnam
Nir Avieli

7. Agroecology and the Cuban Nation
Marisa Wilson

8. Gardening for the State: Cultivating Bionational Citizens in Postsocialist Russia
Melissa L. Caldwell

Afterword: Ethical Food Systems, Between Suspicion and Hope
Harry G. West

Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

Rich, both theoretically and empirically . . . It is, in short, a text bound to the complex pursuit of the ethical in a world where such an endeavour is becoming all the more urgent.

The Allegra Laboratory - Fiona Murphy

"This volume signifi cantly contributes to understanding what it means to practice ethical eating and points to the various dilemmas in paving the way toward more sustainable food systems."

Slavic Review - Tanja Kamin

This book is a valuable source of insight both for scholars and activists looking for more nuanced and “culturally sensitive” approaches to food and its social, political, symbolical, and practical meanings.

The Allegra Laboratory - Costanza Curro

A unique and important contribution to the scholarships of ethical consumption and alternative food movements."

The Allegra Laboratory - Loretta Iegtak Lou