Metropolitics

Covid-19 Transformed New York's Destination Food Markets

Ivana Mellers — 2021-10-05T05:00:00Z

Ivana Mellers analyzes how New York's destination markets—key spaces of economic and social interactions—coped during the pandemic.
---- Series: New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid-19 Pandemic Like supermarkets, restaurants, and coffee shops, New York City's three outdoor destination food markets—Queens Night Market, Bronx Night Market, and Smorgasburg—have been seriously impacted by the Covid‑19 pandemic. In March 2020, when organizers would ordinarily be planning their

- From the Field / Featured, market, markets, food, food culture, food industry, Covid-19, coronavirus, pandemic, New York, United States

Between Two Crises: New York's Artisanal Food Startup Founders

Nga Than — 2021-09-28T05:00:00Z

The Covid‑19 pandemic forced a pause to a decade of growth for New York City's artisanal food startups. Strategies employed by their founders reveal the precarity of their circumstances and the importance of support from city government.
---- Series: New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic Food startups—small-scale artisanal food preparation enterprises—have proliferated in many global cities since the 2007–2008 financial crisis. In New York City, food manufacturing

- From the Field / food industry, food culture, food, artisans, start-ups, businesses, manufacturing, precarity, Covid-19, coronavirus, pandemic, United States, New York

Can the New Economy Survive without Coffee Shops (and Their Wi‑Fi)?

Thomas R. Chung — 2021-09-21T05:00:00Z

Thomas R. Chung argues that coffee shops play an important role in the creative and tech sectors of the knowledge-based new economy, and shows how the pandemic has disrupted this important node in New York City's agglomeration economy.
---- Series: New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic The Covid‑19 pandemic hit close to home for many New Yorkers who depend on the hospitality industry, as dining out and drinking are integral parts of the social, cultural, and

- From the Field / coffee, food, food culture, coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic, agglomeration economies, coffee shops, tech sector, knowledge-based economy, New York, United States, tech economy, creative industries, new economy

New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic

Sharon Zukin — 2021-09-14T05:00:00Z

Metropolitics is pleased to present the second dossier coordinated by faculty and students in the PhD program in sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), which explore New York City–specific issues. This dossier, comprising four articles, examines New York City's food industry in the face of the Covid‑19 pandemic. Sharon Zukin introduces the series, with articles by Thomas R. Chung, Nga Than, and Ivana Mellers to follow.
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- Series / food, food culture, Covid-19, coronavirus, food industry, New York, United States

In Cathedrals of Craft: Workplaces for the New Elite Service, Retail, and Manual Labor Jobs

Richard E. Ocejo — 2015-05-12T05:00:00Z

As artisanal economies emerge in postindustrial cities, the symbolic language and craft culture of the industrial city remain strikingly apparent; a prime example of this is the growth, in gentrifying neighborhoods, of high-end bars, barbershops and butcher shops that draw on the romantic imagery of their traditional working-class counterparts. Richard E. Ocejo's exploration of New York City's Chelsea Market highlights the intersection of three 21st‑century urban transformations: shifts in the

- Essays / United States, work, food, retail, New York, food culture, craft work, postindustrialism, cultural omnivores, service sector, artisans, new economy, Featured

The Abattoir's Call: At the Margins of New York City's Foodie Movement

Richard E. Ocejo — 2014-11-17T05:50:00Z

Food-conscious urban consumers often ask their butcher where their meat comes from. But how many wonder about the form of death the animals were put through? Richard Ocejo gives a rare glance at a link in the food chain that remains an unglamorous mystery.
Open kitchens in trendy restaurants, countless chef, cooking, and food-related television shows, artisanal food carts, and whole animal butcher shops. As food culture has grown, how food gets made has become more glamorous. Knowing about

- From the Field / United States, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, New York, distance, food culture, craft, death, meat

Organic school meals: what remains of the pioneer spirit?

Leïla Kebir & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-05-09T04:55:00Z

The concept of “organic canteens” has proved remarkably successful, buoyed by the Grenelle de l'Environnement (the French government's environment round table) and the model of alternative food systems. However, the large-scale implementation of organic canteens remains problematic in the face of incompatibilities between local production and organic farming, and raises the question of the dilution of the initial objective.
It was against the backdrop of a food crisis that organic canteens

- Debates / sustainable development, proximity, agriculture, short food-supply chains, farming, food, food culture

Local food: a concrete Utopia

Christian Deverre & Jean-Baptiste Traversac & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-02-15T06:00:00Z

Roland Vidal recently invited us to look beyond short food-supply chains and rethink local links between cities and agriculture. Here, Christian Deverre and Jean-Baptiste Traversac provide a critical reading of the consequences of changes in farming production methods on the environment and the population.
In an article published in 2011 in Métropolitiques, Roland Vidal denounced both the lack of realism of proposals to feed major urban centres via local agriculture and the erroneous nature

- Debates / France, Paris region, utopia, urban agriculture, market gardening, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, Greater Paris, food culture