Urban Foodways and Communication

Lum, de Ferrière le Vayer, and their collaborating authors provide an exciting new perspective on foodways as dynamic forms of communication within and among contested urban spaces. Sophisticated yet accessible, diverse yet coherent, fresh but well grounded, this volume dives deep into the material, symbolic, and political complexities of food as cultural heritage. -- Amy E. Guptill, Associate Professor of Sociology, The College at Brockport – SUNY
This book about culinary cultural heritage contains a wealth of original research from regions that have been under-represented in previous collections on culinary culture. The introductory essay provides an original synthetic conceptualization of culinary culture as communication and ties this to the context of the globalizing city. Overall this book is a significant and original contribution to the growing literature on urban foodways with a particular focus on the social mechanisms and politics of urban culinary heritage. -- James Farrer, Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, Sophia University
This book identifies and explores issues crucial to understanding how food is being used today to represent identity and heritage. Using ethnographic studies from urban contexts around the world, it sheds light on the implications of recognizing food’s potential for such communication and offers a glimpse of the diversity of responses by actual communities and individuals to this attention to food. An excellent introduction to the ideas and challenges of approaching food as communicative medium and intangible heritage! -- Lucy M. Long, PhD, Director, Center for Food and Culture, Bowling Green, OH