Traditional festive food and fragile aspirations of development in Italy: the case of agnolotti pasta

AbstractThis research draws from memories, and the deep sense of belonging, tradition, and presence that is linked with a dish of Italian regional tradition; agnolotti pasta, one example of what can be considered an Italian ethnic food. It does so in order to challenge an assumption that is widely spread in the public debate and as well as in scholarship, which automatically links the popularization of traditional, ethnic cuisine with a fulgid prospective of local development in particular for the rural communities. This article challenges this imagery by drawing attention on what popularization means and how it is achieved in food festivals, restaurants, and shops. In doing so, it contributes to decouple popularization and development by exploring the ethnographic case of Piedmont, Italy

Crisis in the City of Gold: Emplacement, industry, and economic downturn in Valenza, Italy

This thesis is an exploration of the effects that an Italian city and internationally known industrial district, Valenza, experienced during the downturn of its principal economy, jewellery production, between 2008 and 2010. The thesis asks how the relationship between a community and a form of economy is perceived, established and performed, and how a downturn can reverberate throughout this web of meanings and practices. In so doing, it contributes to the anthropological debates on Italy, flexible industrialisation and economic crises, and explores themes of disciplinary interest such as public rhetoric, emplacement, industry, crafts, unemployment, and precarisation. In the first part of the thesis I show how the connections between Valenza and its jewellery industry appear through the widespread identity rhetoric (Chapter 1), the deep penetration of jewellery production into the urban fabric (Chapter 2), as well as in the goldsmiths’ way of understanding production, ‘artigianalità’ and entrepreneurship (Chapters 3 and 4). In the second part of the work, I show that the downturn led to a rise in unemployment and a worsening of work and economic conditions for individuals and firms that undermined the basis of the participation of the community in the business. On the one hand, the loss of their jobs obliged (ex-) goldsmiths to re-think and re-shape their world, by abandoning the practices, spaces and social networks associated with their previous work (Chapter 6). On the other hand, the worsening of economic conditions led to a disaggregation of the network of firms and a ruination of the industrial landscape forcing goldsmiths to question their economic model and its future (Chapter 7). More broadly, the downturn became an object of the discourse of the city and an object of knowledge of its community that led to challenge the identity rhetoric and start discussing futures of a city without gold (Chapter 8)

Powers, John & Vikram Khanna. The Future of the Economy. East-West Perspectives on Pathways through Disruption. London and New York: Routledge, 2019.

Book review

Empowering rural tourism in Europe. Understanding the educational needs of a rising sector.

Empowering rural tourism in Europe. Understanding the educational needs of a rising sector, is one of the results of the European Erasmus+ project “The European Network for the Promotion of Culinary and Proximity Tourism in Rural Areas” (www.gastrotourism. eu). It presents the results of the field research conducted by the partners of the project (Pôle Métropolitain Pour L’entrepreneuriat Le Carburateur, Igor Vitale International Srl, Balkan International Academy, Rivensco Consulting Ltd, Association for Education and Development of Disabled People, EUROASIA Innovative Society Association, Asociatia De Dezvoltare Intercomunitară Harghita, University of Gastronomic Sciences), under the scientific coordination of the University of Gastronomic Sciences. www.gastrotourism.eu 9 The book is divided in three parts that guide the reader in understanding better the characteristics of the project (Part I), in exploring the results of the research (Part II) and acquiring the tools needed to replicate the research (Part III). Specifically, Chapter 1 introduces the European project and its aims and goals. Chapter 2 presents the partnership. Chapter 3 presents the research and its methodology. Chapter 4 explores the common needs of rural tourism in Europe with specific attention to education. Chapter 6 discusses the results highlighting the suggested areas of educational intervention. Chapter 7 presents the contents of the theorical and methodological toolkit of which tools are illustrated in the following chapters (from 8 to 11). The volume is concluded by the bibliography. The present book is edited by Michele F. Fontefrancesco and includes materials from all the partners. The authors of the individual chapters are indicated in the opening of each one, while the descriptions of areas as well as the summary of the individual focus group discussion has been provided by the partners operating in each location. All the partners want to thank the organizations that supported the field research and all the participants to the discussions that allowed the completion of the research

Empty Squares and Missing Food Festivals: the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Italian Rural Communities: a Reflection

What does an empty square mean for the future of a rural community? This question has been buzzing in my head since spring 2020 when my country, Italy, entered its first lockdown period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I am an economic anthropologist. Since the mid-2000s my research has focused on the development of local communities in rural areas of Italy. Specifically, I have been investigating the role played by folk food festivals, the so-called sagre, using ethnographic research in north-western Italy, an area often studied by anthropologists to understand the transformations of the relationship between urban and rural centres, as well as the area of the country where sagre are most frequent and widespread

Migrant Entrepreneurship and Social Integration: A Case-Study Analysis among Bangladeshi Vendors in Rome

Migration and migrants’ integration are prominent aspects of globalized contemporary society. In this respect, a key question appears of how to foster the full participation of migrants in the host society. This article investigates the role of migrant entrepreneurship as a vector of integration. Based on case-study research conducted among Bangladeshi vendors in Nuovo Mercato Esquilino in Rome, the article highlights the potentialities in terms of social and market innovation of such activity. However, it points out that this way forward cannot be considered a generalized solution, relying on strong social and cultural capital that not all migrants, in particular asylum seekers, may have. Thus, it proposes a normative adjustment to empowering migrants and facilitating their endeavors

The potatoes of Otro: the reconstitution of an element of the Walser food heritage in NW Italy

The article analyzes the trajectory of the reconstitution of the gastronomic heritage among the Italian Walser community. It focuses on the case study of potato production in the Otro Valley, in Alagna Valsesia (VC), and explores how the process of heritagization linked to these products allowed the community to reconstitute a trait of their biocultural diversity lost during the twentieth century. In so doing, it offers details about the gastronomy of potatoes among the Walser and shows that food heritagization is not always coupled with the commodification of local heritage products, but rather can foster processes of reappropriation of a traditional gastronomy