Description
Book SynopsisSpeed is the essence of the modern era, but our faster, more frenetic lives often trouble us and leave us wondering how we are meant to live in today's world. Slow Living explores the philosophy and politics of 'slowness' as it investigates the growth of Slow Food into a worldwide, 'eco-gastronomic' movement. Originating in Italy, Slow Food is not only committed to the preservation of traditional cuisines and sustainable agriculture but also the pleasures of the table and a slower approach to life in general. Craig and Parkins argue that slow living is a complex response to processes of globalization. It connects ethics and pleasure, the global and the local, as part of a new emphasis on everyday life in contemporary culture and politics. The 'global everyday' is not a simple tale of speed and geographical dislocation. Instead, we all negotiate different times and spaces that make our quality of life and an 'ethics of living' more pressing concerns. This innovative book shows how slow living is about the challenges of living a more mindful and pleasurable life.
Trade Review'Highly original, exciting and timely, 'Slow Living' really brings to the fore current academic and popular debates about postmaterialism and new traditionalism. In thinking through food, lifestyle and politics, it brings a unique contribution to the literature about globalization -- there is certainly no other book like it'Dr. David Bell, Sociology Department, Manchester Metropolitan University'Slow Living examines the international Slow Food Movement from a cultural studies perspective as a case study of a broad socio-political practice aimed at a more deliberate, sustainable and pleasurable existence. It is a cutting-edge book that raises important questions about modern social movements and globalization'Carole Counihan, Professor of Anthropology, Millersville University and author of Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence'An intelligent analysis of the stresses of contemporary society'Saturday Guardian'Slow food can be read
Table of ContentsCONTENTS Preface Acknowledgements 1. Slow Living in the Global Everyday Slow living Everyday life Global culture Slow arts of the self 2. Slow Food Origins, philosophy and structure Projects Citt Slow New social movements and Slow Food 3. Time and Speed The temporalities of modernity An ethics of time Sloworld? 4. Space and Place Home and work Deterritorialization, the local and place Terroir and tradition Citt Slow 5. Food and Pleasure Pleasure Authenticity and taste The shared table 6. The Politics of Slow Living Visualizing global social movements The politics of eco-gastronomy Life politics Conclusion: Rage against the (bread) machine? Endnotes Appendix 1: Official Manifesto for the International Movement for the Defense of and the Right to Pleasure Bibliography Index
