CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Kusimova, Tamara |
|---|---|
| Title | The (Re-)Invention of New Russian Cuisine: Gastropolitics in the Post-embargo Moscow |
| Summary | On August 6, 2014, the food embargo policy was officially introduced by the Russian government as a response to economic sanctions imposed by the EU and the USA. In media, food and other fast-moving consumer goods suddenly were divided into “ours” and “theirs”: ours were Russian and from friendly countries (like China), theirs were Ukrainian, European, and American. The concept of security and self-sufficiency in terms of independence from the Others not only made its return to the public discourse in 2014, it became the central concept of domestic policy, was massively covered by the media, and despite the general increase in customer prices got mass support - according to the opinion polls. The embargo policy measures were recognized as a major shift towards economic protectionism, as they were introduced as an opportunity for Russia to develop its own agricultural industry. In my research, I propose that the idea of local food consumption in Russia is prone to be used in social messages of two sorts. First ones carry the narrative of locality, taste, quality and re-invention of the tradition. The second ones are the ‘big scale’ openly political messages about opposition to the West, creation of “us” and “them” and about food security in a very special definition of self-sufficiency and independence of countries that are not ‘allies’. In my research, I am going to describe and analyze how small-scale local farmers define the ‘local Russian food’; how they reproduce and promote the ideas of ‘localness’ and how it intersects with the official governmental discourse on food security. |
| Supervisor | Kowalski, Alexandra; Monterescu, Daniel |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/kusimova_tamara.pdf |
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