Rural space and the local food landscape: Consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging

Abstract

Purpose – This research aims to investigate consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging in a regional context. Design/methodology/approach – Following a socio-spatial lens and considering the ‘realm of meaning’ of place, this research focuses on local consumers’ lived meanings of ‘local’ food choice, and hence adopts a phenomenological approach to the data collection and analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with residents of the Italian region of Marche. Findings – Drawing on Trudeau’s (2006) politics of belonging, we reveal three interconnected themes which show how local consumers articulate a local food ‘orthodoxy’ and how their discourses and practices draw and maintain a boundary between local and non-local food, whereby local food is considered ‘autochthonous’ of rural space. Thus, our participants construct a local food landscape, conveying rural (vs. urban) meanings through which food acquires ‘localness’ (vs. non-‘localness’) status. Practical implications – Our findings provide considerable scope for food producers, manufacturers and/or marketers to differentiate local food products by enhancing consumers’ direct experience of it in relation to rural space. Thus, enabling local food producers to convey rural (vs. urban) meanings to consumers, who would develop an orthodoxy guiding future choice. Social implications – Our findings enable regional promoters and food policymakers to leverage the symbolic distinctiveness of food autochthony to promote place and encourage consumers to participate in their local food system. Originality/value – By utilising the politics of belonging as an analytical framework, we show that the urban-rural dichotomy – rather than being an obsolete epistemological category – fuels politics of belonging dynamics and that local food consumers socially construct food localness not merely as a romanticisation of rurality, but as a territorial expression of the contemporary local/non-local cultural conflict implied in the politics of belonging. Thus, we advance our theoretical understanding by demonstrating that food ‘becomes’ local and therefore, builds on extant food localness conceptualisations.