Zhang, J. Y. (2017). How to be modern? The social negotiation of 'good food' in contemporary China. Sociology, forthcoming

Abstract:

Developing safe and sustainable food production for its population has been central to China's 'Modernisation Project'. Yet recent fieldwork in 3 Chinese cities suggests that there are two conflicting views on what a 'modern' agriculture should look like. For the government, modernisation implies a rational calculation of scale and a mirroring of global trends. But an alternative interpretation of modernity, promoted by civil society, has been gaining ground. For this camp, good food production is then established through a 'rhizomic' spread of new practices, which are inspired by world possibilities but are deeply rooted in the local context. Based on 14 interviews and 5 focus groups, this paper investigates the ongoing social negotiation of 'good food' in China. It demonstrates how a non-Western society responds to the twin processes of modernisation and globalisation and provides insights on the varieties of modernity in the making.

Key words: China, food, globalisation, grobalisation, social movement, varieties of modernities,