Full Description
Many people feel that the impact of technology and the pressure of the market economy on alpine communities leads to a loss of biodiversity, authenticity and cultural diversity, affecting animal husbandry, local food production, social networks and traditions. It is undeniable that "progress," "development" and "integration" are transforming working routines, recipes for dairy production and patterns of communication in rural communities. This book explores the many tensions at the core of present local practices and debates in the Italian Alps, highlighting the many transformations undergone within skilled practice and cultural heritage as a result of commoditization, professionalization and technification, with a special focus on the ways in which this also means, quite literally, changing one's vision of locality: of the landscape, of local products and of local animals.
Contents
List of Figures
Foreword
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. From Community Studies to Communities of Practice
Skill, Place and Identity
From Community Studies to Communities of Practice
Identity, Emplacement and Phenomenology
Towards an Ecology of Practice
A Place at the Margins of Europe?
Going Rural Conclusion
Chapter 2. Blessed Be the Car!
The Problem of Place
Roots
Shifting Tracks
Routes
Commuting to Church
Blessed Be the Car
Conclusion
Chapter 3. From Observational Documentary to Skilled Vision
Film as Ethnography
Worldviews and the Anthropology of Vision
The Critique of Vision
Skilled Vision
Breeding Aesthetics
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Skilled Practice
Skill, Technology and Farming
Encountering Breeding Strategies in the Field
Life on the Farm
Localising Skills?
Conclusion
Chapter 5. Skilled Vision and Animal Husbandry
Towards an Ecology of Skilled Visions
Looking as a Form of Cultural Belonging
Industrialising Organisms
Expert Looks, Moral Looks
Conclusion
Chapter 6. Reinventing Skills
Mobilising Skills
Taleggio - a Cheese and a Valley
Local Products, Local Memories
New Skin for Old Cheese
Conclusion
Bibliography
Filmography
Index
