Gastronativism: Food and Identity Politics in the New World Order
Lecture
18.30-20.30
Save the Date
for adults
in English
The table both unites and divides. It connects those who are invited to sit around it while excluding those who are not. In recent decades, we have witnessed the rise of gastronativism, the ideological use of food in politics to determine who belongs in a community and who doesn't. In an era of populist movements, sovereignisms, and geopolitical realignments, this phenomenon has become more prevalent and intense as food has become a potent symbol of identity.
In this lecture, food culture researcher Fabio Parasecoli will introduce the concept of gastronativism and trace its connection to contemporary geopolitics.
The Italian political right has expressed outrage over halal tortellini and pork-free lasagna served at the Vatican. European anti-immigrant politicians denounce couscous and kebabs. In the United States, burgers have become a battleground for political disputes about American identity and climate change. In India, Hindu fundamentalists organize attacks on Muslims who sell beef.
Threatened by the globalization of food systems, people have responded by searching for their roots, sometimes playing into the hands of nationalist and xenophobic movements. However, gastronativism is not always exclusionary. Sometimes, as in the cases of Slow Food and the food sovereignty movement, it leverages pride in local production and culinary traditions to resist transnational corporations, uplift marginalized and oppressed groups, and help those left behind by globalization.