Bangkok’s foodscape : public eating, gender relations and urban change

• Main Author: Yasmeen, Gisèle
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/6848

This is an examination of public eating in urban Thai society. By advancing the concept of foodscape the recursive relationship between society and space is studied with respect to the habit of purchasing prepared food in Bangkok. The sale of prepared food, particularly at the level of small and micro-enterprises, is dominated by women. What is fascinating about the Thai case is the presence of women in this sector making them a firm part of the public sphere. By looking at the mutual interrelationship between food-systems, gender relations and urban spatial phenomena, I establish why and how public eating is gendered and how small foodshop (eating establishment) owners are adjusting to the rapidly changing environment of Bangkok. There are three specific questions addressed: i) how can we represent Bangkok's foodscape?; ii) how is this foodscape gendered?; and iii) what spaces are associated with the sale of prepared food in the city and how are these changing in light of rapid urbanization? The theoretical pivot is that urban space is gendered with respect to the Thai food system in unique ways which intersect with discourses of "public" and "private". Through recourse to relevant literature, statistics and my empirical research, I construct a portrait of Bangkok's foodscape. The methods used include participantobservation, formal and informal interviewing, and a quantitative survey of the Victory Monument Area in central Bangkok. The result is a hybrid between ethnography and more traditional approaches to urban geography. A self-reflexive use of fieldnotes and interview transcripts creates a grounded representation of place focussed on the field research encounter. Conclusions identify the socio-economic, ideological and spatial factors which explain the public eating phenomenon and its gendering. It reflects on the heuristic considerations of an ethnographic bricolage and the advancement of the foodscape concept. The meaning of public/private spheres as evidenced in Bangkok's foodscape is clearly different from that of neighbouring South and East Asian societies. Recent changes in the Bangkok food-system point to the blurring of boundaries between home and work, formal and informal enterprises, as well as "tradition" and "modernity".