Description
Book SynopsisFood and social transformation in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
Trade ReviewFood and Everyday Life in the Post-Socialist World is a significant contribution to the field of food studies and to the anthropology of post-socialism.
* Anthropology of East Europe Review *
No advanced students or scholars of the social sciences concerned with globalizing topics and post-socialist states should miss the opportunity to examine this book. . . . We are fortunate to have such a worthy contribution to food studies and Eurasian anthropology.Vol. 70.2, April 2011
* The Russian Review *
By illuminating the ways in which people previously living under state socialism have variously responded to new food markets and regulatory regimes, this volume constitutes an important contribution to post-socialist studies and to the anthropology of food.#16 2010
-- Jakob A. Klein * School of Oriental andAfrican Studies *
The authors of Food and Everyday Life provide a text that is rich in historical and cultural context and that examines the interactions of the regular people of the old Soviet states in ways that are convincing, thorough, and otherwise mind-blowing. Winter/Spring 2010
* Counterpoise *
[This] book is thought-provoking, a pleasure to read, and an important contribution to studies of the globalization of postsocialist states and to food studies. 47.1 2013
* Canadian-American Slavic Studies *
Taking us from Moscow coffeehouses to the practice of pickling vegetables in the kitchens of urban Sofia, the authors each employ the ethnography of the mundane to question not only ideal-type models of 'transition', but also the hegemony of novel, neoliberal forms of governance. This is anthropology at its best, combining the rich, 'thick description' of the everyday concerns of ordinary citizens with a rigorous treatment of issues of power, policy and social inequality.
* Slavonica *
[E]ach essay in this collection is exceptionally well written and thoroughly researched. In its unique look at how food practices have reflected and responded to the transition from the socialist past to the capitalist present, this collection provides a valuable contribution to the ongoing academic debates about the Europeanization and globalization of the countries of the former Soviet bloc.
* Slavic and East European Journal *
Table of ContentsForeword / Marion Nestle
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Food and Everyday Life after State Socialism / Melissa L. Caldwell
1. From Canned Food to Canny Consumers: Cultural Competence in the Age of Mechanical Production / Yuson Jung
2. The Tale of the Toxic Paprika: The Hungarian Taste of Euro-Globalization / Zsuzsa Gille
3. Self-Made Women: Informal Dairy Markets in Europeanizing Lithuania / Diana Mincyte
4. Tempest in a Coffee Pot: Brewing Incivility in Russia's Public Sphere / Melissa L. Caldwell
5. The Geopolitics of Taste: The "Euro" and "Soviet" Sausage Industries in Lithuania / Neringa Klumbyte
6. A Celebration of Masterstvo: Professional Cooking, Culinary Art, and Cultural Production in Russia / Stas Shectman
7. The Social and Gendered Lives of Vodka in Rural Siberia / Katherine Metzo
Afterword. Turnips and Mangos: Power and the Edible State in Eastern Europe / Elizabeth C. Dunn
List of Contributors
Index
