Paper short abstract:

The research has looked at the material dimension of family relations as it is embodied by the homemade food parcels received by middle-class youth in urban Romania, but also at how the family roles are negotiated and reshaped as a result of this practice.

Paper long abstract:

Food parcels containing homemade preserves and cooked food represent a newly rediscovered material connection forged between parents in the hometowns and young adult middle-class sons and daughters living and working in the city.

The research has looked at the material dimension of family relations as it is embodied by the homemade food parcels received by middle-class youth in urban Romania, but also at how the family roles are negotiated and reshaped as a result of this practice and how the class divide is being erased or reinforced inside this intergenerational exchange. Reciprocity relations are played out in particular ways inside this exchange, as is the reproduction and negotiation of taste and food values between the senders and the recipients (e.g. cosmopolitanism, sustainability, traceability, nutrition and health). The research has also sought to describe and analyse the material culture and the infrastructure supporting the build-up of a sense of diffuse households.

The findings are supported by interviews with recipients and senders of parcels, ethnographic material from the recipients' homes and places of transit (trains, buses and collecting stations) but also through visual documents provided by the recipients.