Eating and drinking in Global Brooklyn

ABSTRACT

This essay proposes an analytical framework for studying the emergent cultural formation around eating and drinking that we call Global Brooklyn. It is a recurring, vaguely codified set of material objects, environments, practices, and discourses which materialize in cities throughout the world in coffee places, restaurants, and food halls. Taking an ideal type approach, we describe: (1) the designed materialities of rugged postindustrial settings; (2) a shift in taste judgements; (3) the role of digital and visual communication in creating and sharing experiences and values; (4) a knowledge-intensive aspect of practices and strategies of actors; and (5) appeals to an ethos of authenticity and craft that celebrates manual labor. The essay aims at bridging food studies with food design through a closer engagement with material culture in objects and spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Globalization
• foodways
• material culture
• food design
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The first use of the term that we were able to find was in a Facebook post by Lev Manovich, a media scholar. In October 2015 he posted a photo of a coffee shop in Riga with a hashtag #globalbrooklyn. Contacted for context Manovich has explained in an e-mail that he meant by that a “symbol for contemporary/urban/hip/creative – a combination of certain lifestyle and design trends + actual creatives living in the area” (Manovich, personal communication, 2018).

2. To the suspicion of critics: “Hipsters do not yield great literature, but did make good use of fonts” (Greif 2016).

3. Granted, some flexibility is provided in terms of menus, creating the dynamics sometimes referred to as glocalization: McDonald’s in Morocco may offer a McArabia (pita with lamb meat) and those in Poland a WieśMac (a burger with mustard and horseradish sauce).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki [DEC-2017/27/B/HS2/01338].

Notes on contributors

Mateusz Halawa

Mateusz Halawa is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research in New York and a Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His work focuses on the cultural analyses of economic life.

Fabio Parasecoli

Fabio Parasecoli is Professor of Food Studies in the Nutrition and Food Studies Department at New York University. His research explores the intersections among food, popular culture, and politics, particularly in food design. Recent books include Knowing Where It Comes From: Labeling Traditional Foods to Compete in a Global Market(2017) and Food (2019).