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- Convenors:
-
Donatella Schmidt
(Università di Padova)
Chantal Crenn (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier)
Giovanna Palutan
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- Discussants:
-
Luca Ciabarri
(University of MIlan)
Hannah Lewis (University of Hull)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- 22 University Square (UQ), 01/005
- Sessions:
- Friday 29 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
While the scenario of emergencies - represented by sea landings, inland arrivals and border crossings- is marked by a lack of control and a sense of uncertainty at all levels, a specific question will lead our inquiry: where, when and how food is able to generate hope, agency and empowerment?
Long Abstract:
Although the literature on food on the one hand and refugees on the other is substantial and tackled from the most diverse perspectives, merging the two areas of study is barely considered (Lewis 2010;Cullen Dunn; Dharod; Rozakou; Palutan and Schmidt). Whenever taken into account, the issue is mainly addressed in terms of nourishment and food security leaving aside processes of re-signification in the new context, i.e. in the ritual and convivial spheres, in the construction of self, in rephrasing the gender role and in the communicative aspect. The panel aims to address the interplay between food and forced migration in European urban, rural and border areas (emergency shelters, official and informal camps, reception centres, soup kitchens, micro-enterprises, digital environments). While the present scenario of emergencies and pandemic is marked by a lack of control and a sense of uncertainty at all levels, a specific question, instead, will lead our inquiry: where, when and how food is able to generate agency and empowerment? By means of food we intend to explore spaces of constructive experiences and practices in which people attempt to regain control on their own lives; consider ways in which volunteers become active subjects in shaping models of societal responses; reflect upon creative ways in which a relationship with the society at large can be constructed. More broadly, the panel will strive to provide deeper insights on a chapter of contemporary history caught in the very process of its unfolding with food representing the privileged means enabling us to capture it
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 29 July, 2022, -Caterina Borelli (Università Ca' Foscari) Louis Vuilleumier (University of Fribourg)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on extensive field researches at various migrants' settlements in Italy and Switzerland, we explore the role of food provision policies as an index of the degree of dependency/autonomy granted to guests of the European asylum regimes.
Paper long abstract:
Can food help us understand asymmetrical power relations? In this paper, we present differential food provision policies as an index of the degree of dependency/autonomy granted to migrants within and outside European asylum regimes. We frame our discourse through the notion of hospitality as a practice of sovereignty and control over the stranger and an expression of the moral superiority of the host, in relation to whom the guest holds a subordinated position and a deep indebtedness (Pitt Rivers, 1977; Herzfeld, 1987). Going beyond a simplistic vision of food as mere nourishment, we delve into it as a material and substantial element mediating hospitable, hence asymmetrical, relations (Ortner, 1978), which in this specific context translate into pervasive bordering practices. We engage with most recent studies on hospitality (Aparna and Schapendonk, 2018; Candea and Da Col, 2012; Rosello, 2001; Rozakou, 2012; Shryock, 2012) by scrutinizing the nexus between food and autonomy. Drawing on extensive field researches at various migrants' settlements (from formal reception centers to squats) in Italy and Switzerland, we explore how food instantiates struggles about self-determination, reproduces and/or reshapes gender expected roles, but also generates practices of micro-resistance by both providers and recipients of aid. Zooming on food issues within and at the fringes of European asylum regimes, this paper offers an ethnographic analysis of practices of hospitality as power relations and migrants' agency in regaining control over their own lives.
Lucia Gentile (Trieste University)
Paper short abstract:
For people with a migration background, food has a significant symbolic value in the process of reconstructing one's own home. Exploring the link between body, food and gender, the paper analyses the embodied experience and socialisation of Pakistani migrants currently living in Trieste (Italy).
Paper long abstract:
For people with a migration background, food has a significant symbolic value in the process of reconstructing one's own home. Beyond the physiological need, cooking and eating certain dishes is a way to make one's home mobile, to create new bonds with other compatriots, to share one's history and to become familiar with the new place of 'arrival'. Talking about 'home food' allows to explore the transformations of the sense of belonging, of the construction of identity and community within the host society. Exploring the link between body and food, the paper analyses the embodied experience of Pakistani migrants, currently living in Trieste (Italy). Mostly men, none of them have ever cooked in their place of origin, but they have all learned along the migration path how to prepare Pakistani dishes. The research shows how socialisation is built around food: the Pakistani bar and Asian grocery shops are a meeting place for exchange and for creating bonds. Home cooked meals are always shared, to get together during work breaks and to strengthen ties. The paper has a double purpose. Firstly, it explores how migration influences the gender divisions of culinary work, and how this transforms the relationship with food and the embodied experience of eating. Secondly, the paper explores meals as a moment of socialisation and food preparation as a reconstruction of a sense of home. How does the link with 'home food' change during the migration process?
Dorota Rancew-Sikora (University of Gdansk) Agata Bachórz (University of Gdańsk)
Paper short abstract:
I will consider the functioning of the concept of hospitality in the Polish discourse focused on food-related practices during the arrival of Ukrainian refugees. Since hospitality was considered lost until recently in Poland, now the participants expect it to end and are trying to guess how.
Paper long abstract:
With the arrival of two million refugees in Poland in March 2022, food appeared as an essential element of the new situation in many respects: as a way to show and build solidarity, communicate hope and regain partial control over the dramatic situation of war. It was prepared and offered on both sides of Ukrainian-Polish relations. Firstly, as a gift that saved the lives of Ukrainian refugees after they fled from Ukraine, and secondly, as a skill given to Polish consumers by refugees. Food handmade by Ukrainian women is well known and highly valued in Poland, and in this situation, ordering and buying it helped refugees to break out of the position of total dependence and despair.
On the theoretical level, I will consider the functioning of the concept of hospitality in the Polish discourse focused on those food-related practices, which until recently, were considered both very important in Poland and lost as a result of commercialization and individualization processes. Currently, the participants of the discourse share not only surprise and deep satisfaction that unexpectedly and suddenly hospitality has become a reality and the object of collective pride in Poland again, but also the conviction and guesswork about when and how it will end, and Poles will return to their normal state of national prejudices, distrust and closure in private circles.