Stigma, markets, and the state: an ethnography of gastro-tourism in Calabria

Thesis

This thesis examines how cultural and territorial stigmatization affect the development of Calabria’s gastro-tourism industry, what forms these stigmas have taken, and how they recirculate. To the Italian nation-state and wider Europe, Calabria often remains a ‘question mark’ southern Italian region of liability and uncertainty. It often represents a ‘left behind,’ developmentally stagnant and corrupt place, even though it has vibrant cultures, distinct natural landscapes, and rich gastronomic traditions. Stigma and stereotypes do not spontaneously appear from nowhere. They are constructed (politically and economically) from outside and inside stigmatized communities, deeply rooted in socio-cultural contexts, and maintained through systems of hegemonic power. Using gastro-tourism (food and wine) as an original analytical lens that has not been used in the same way yet in anthropological research on Calabria, interrogates these forms of stigmatization in ways that other topics could not. This is because of how closely entangled food cultures and tourism are to expressions and representations of identity, place, belonging, value formation, morality, and socio-economic class. This thesis is an original and contemporary ethnography on Calabria, from my positionality as a liminal member of the culture (having ancestry from the region but being born and raised in Canada), and I utilize this transnational component to demonstrate further how malleable and dynamic Calabrian cultural identity is, countering the limited representations of the region which portray it as static, often focusing only on analysing corruption and its mafia organization. My thesis develops an original approach to researching stigma that incorporates historical contexts, interdisciplinary research, alternative forms of non-academic discourses (such as travel writing and popular media), and the voices of Calabrian communities. This approach achieves a more nuanced understanding of how forms of stigma are created and maintained, which then can be applied cross-culturally within anthropology and tourism when engaging with other stigmatized regions and communities.

Authors: Sisca, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-yrmbz78b6
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: travel writing; gastro-tourism; the Southern Question; infrastructure; stigma; tourism; state; food anthropology; transnationalism; Calabria; diaspora
• Subjects: Stigmatization; Travel writing; Food tourism; Calabria (Italy)--Description and travel; Transnationalism; Anthropology; Calabria (Italy)--History