Rotten food classification: food leftover management in the city

• Grant number: 13/15033-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Ronaldo Romulo Machado de Almeida
• Grantee: Lis Furlani Blanco
• Supervisor: Jesus Contreras Hernandez
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/17004-6 - Rotten Life: the pathways of a classification, BP.MS

Abstract

It is the aim of my original research project to comprehend the pathway of the rotten as a classification. Having as a starting point its signification in a consumer and market location until it is disposed and possibly reutilized, the rotten food is classified in different ways, throughout different spheres, creating in this relation discourses that become rules and social practices. The classification of an edible food goes throughout power relations, questions of hygiene, health issues, habitus, legislation, tabu and class relationships, besides other categories from social sciences, although this project central inspiration and its theoretical frame comes from food anthropology. In my home university and throughout courses and discussions with colleagues and my professor adviser Ronaldo Almeida I was able to acquire a vast theoretical frame over the categories presented above. As they all are classic themes of social sciences and anthropology specifically, I was enabled to find interfaces between this matter which provided a rich debate over these questions. However, over Food Anthropology itself, there is still a gap to be filled, not only in my theoretical frame but also in the approach of the most important centers of anthropological studies in the country. The Barcelona University and more specifically Odela - Food Obsevatory (http://www.odela-ub.com/eng/index.htm) was chosen as a reference because of its researchers and professors that are internationally well-known. Their discussion over food goes in an interdisciplinary arena, studying food behavior through a historical, social, economic and cultural perspective. My stay in Barcelona and my participation as a guest researcher in this center of investigation will allow an interdisciplinary debate over food anthropology and a vast contribution to my research if we consider the possibility to meet and discuss with other researchers from different fields of study that, however, share the same area of interest: food. (AU)