Emerging Ruralities: Constructing Distinction, Desire, and Class Through Agritourism in Tuscany Pubblico
Easton, Whitney Leigh (2017)
Abstract
Amid the dislocations associated with the European debt
crisis, rural areas have been noted as loci of resilience
throughout Southern Europe. Backed by claims of "repeasantization"
(Van der Ploeg 2008), the so-called "peasants of the
21st century" (Ventura and
Milone 2007) are revitalizing rural areas. Consonant with this,
changing EU agricultural policy increasingly obliges small and
medium-scale farmers to engage in diversification strategies,
ultimately working to transform rural areas from landscapes of
agricultural production to "landscapes of hypermodern consumption"
and tourism (Heatherington 2011). How long-term farmers fit into
this development vision has remained tenuous, raising the question
of whose voices are represented and whose life projects are
supported by such measures.
This research identifies tensions and emerging patterns of
inequality between established farmers and neo-rural lifestyle
migrants in Tuscany's agritourism sector. For established farmers,
agrarian values conflict with the requirements of hosting tourists,
which is expressed through ambivalence, stereotyping, and
self-marginalizing discourses. Without children who are versed in
certain neo-rural sensibilities and devoted to the farm, they
struggle to successfully engage in agritourism. On the other hand,
neo-rural lifestyle migrants increasingly command the cultural
capital, hosting skills, and tastes that give them advantages in
agritourism. Volunteer and migrant farm workers also play an
under-acknowledged role in recent rural transformations, linking
small farms with "globalized countrysides" (Verinis 2011). By
considering producers' "economies of sentiment" (Paxson 2012) and
class trajectories, this dissertation draws critical attention to
the exclusionary dimensions, tensions, and uncertainties that
characterize emerging rural transformations in the "New
Europe."
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
PART I -- Repeasantization in Rural Central Italy
Chapter 1 -- Introduction: Emerging Landscapes of Power
and Rurality 2
Chapter Outlines
Locating European Rural Transformations in the Literature
Repeasantization and Its Critiques
Political Economy of European Union Agriculture and Rural
Development
The New Paradigm? Pluriactivity and New Rurality in
Europe
European Strategies of Pluriactivity and Repeasantization
Economic Anthropology, Agricultural Anthropology, and Critical
Rural Theory: Research Orientations
Chapter 2 -- Rural Change and Ethnographic Research in Amiata 37
Research Site and History
Italy's Peasant Past
Land Reform and Rural Exodus
Migration and Rural Demography in Italy
Fieldwork and the Working Fields in Amiata
Current Small Farm Trajectories in Amiata
Niche Production of Wine and Olive Oil
Agritourism
Organic Farming
Heritage Breeds and Typical Products
Research Methods
Ethnographic Research on Farms and Agritourisms in Amiata
PART II -- Transformations of Established Farming Livelihoods
Chapter 3 -- Tensions, Stereotypes, and Identity in Agritourism Encounters: The Case of Beppe Gaspari 74
Ethnographic Portrait: Beppe Gaspari and Family, between farm, family, and business
Situating Myself as an Anthropologist on Beppe's Farm
Agriturismo at Beppe's Farm
Vignette 1: The Pool Incident
Vignette 2: Beppe and "La Professoressa"
Vignette 3: "I really don't think Beppe cares…"
"Fare una Figura" and the Art of "Making an Impression": Established Farmers' Class Habitus and Trajectories
"Romans think they're the masters of everything…": Stereotypes and Boundary-Work in Agritourism
The "Intelligent" and the "Rough" People: Constructing Identity, Cultural Difference, and Marginality in Amiata
Chapter 4 -- Rooted in Amiata: Transformations of Established Farming Livelihoods 114
Ethnographic Portraits of Established Farming Livelihoods
Ethnographic Portrait: The Gallis, a "traditional" Amiatan family farm
Ethnographic Portrait: The Marinos, an "out of fashion" farming lifestyle
Opting Out of Agritourism and EU Rural Development Initiatives
Ethnographic Portrait: The Valentis, a family farm and agriturismo
Ethnographic Portrait: The Contis, an olive oil empire
Ethnographic Portrait: The Bonacores, from mixed farming to organic wine and agritourism
Chapter Summary
PART III -- Neo-Rural Flows: Lifestyle Migrants, Labor Migrants, and Volunteer Tourists
Chapter 5 -- The Reinvention of the Rural: Neo-Rural Lives and Distinction in Amiata 155
The Rural and the Neo-Rural: Mapping Landscapes of Desire and "Economies of Sentiment"
Describing Neo-Rurals and Rural Class Transformations
Constructing Neo-Rural Lives and Livelihoods: Urban-to-Rural Migration as Class and Life Project
Neo-Rural Realities in Amiata: Ethnographic Portraits
Ethnographic Portrait: Elsa, a young single woman working on and off farm
Ethnographic Portrait: Carlo, a middle-aged artist and buddhist practitioner
Ethnographic Portrait: Arturo, a middle-aged engineer and buddhist practitioner experimenting with self-sufficiency
Ethnographic Portrait: The Cerullos, a neo-rural family vineyard
Ethnographic Portrait: Davide, a young farmer-bachelor and agricultural wage laborer
Emerging Dimensions of Neo-Rurality
Dirt and Desire: Place Making, Belonging, and Affective Longing
Modernization and Masculinity
Young Rural Migrants and Farmers: "This isn't what I was expecting…"
Chapter 6 -- Agritourism and Emerging Class Trajectories: From Agricultural Production to Cultural Consumption 218
Neo-Rurals as Bricoleurs: Constructing Neo-Rural Subjects and a Consumable Countryside
Neo-Rural Styles of Agriturismo
Ethnographic Portrait: Antonio Silvestri, Farming and Friendship
Ethnographic Portrait: Gianna and Fulvio Martaci, Neo-Rural Marital Unity
Chapter 7 -- Divergent Realities: Agritourism Through Neo-Rural and Established Lenses 238
The Materiality of Agritourism: Aesthetics, Objects and Distinction
Gendering Farming and Agritourism: Marriage, Masculinity, and Social Status
Chapter 8 -- Mobile Global Workers: Transformations of Rural Labor 249
Volunteer Tourism, Organic Farming, and Back to the Land: WWOOF
Migrant Labor and Entrepreneurship in European Countrysides
Ethnographic Portrait: Olan
Rural Migrant Labor
Chapter Summary
PART IV -- Uncertain Futures
Chapter 9 -- Conclusion--Uncertain Futures: The Hegemonic Production of Neo-Rurality 270
References 281
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