Paper short abstract:

Paper concentrates on the hand made tea produced in Georgia. By concentrating on technology, knowledge production and transmission asks a question about social and economic change and role of the state in post-socialist country.

Paper long abstract:

My presentation is based on field research held in Georgia concentrating on post-socialist experience of tea growers. Even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, most tea fields were abandoned. Today, Georgian tea production is on the rise in terms of both quality and quantity, with emphasis on the organic growing process.

I am going to analyse Georgian Hand Made Tea Makers Association (bringing together around 500 families) to show the role of technology and knowledge transmission and production about growing food in broader social, political and economical context of post-socialist state.

To what point can we see this activities as part of the adjustment to global neoliberal changes and to what point can it be analysed as self-sufficiency strategy?

In my presentation I am going to address following issues: how taste is connected to nostalgia and discourse about a state, or rather post-state memory (Dunn 2008). Furthermore, by showing the process of shifting from state produced tea to artisanal home production I am going to refer to the question about cultural meanings of new food technologies, which in my case is abandonment of industrial production in favour of hand made home growing.