Barbara Degenhart

Food - Space and Society: „Changing Food Consumption Practices in the mid-sized City Context of Ethiopia - the Case Study Mek'ele"

Global value chains, food from different cultures as well as the daily consumption of processed food are constant elements of “modern food consumption patterns”. Globalization effects are appearing more and more in the Global South, also reaching regional cities. Ethiopia is a country with long sustained traditional and unique food consumption patterns. Due to economic policies, globalization processes have started and are influencing and transforming particularly actions and habits of urban dwellers.

With respect to food consumption, the availability and the accessibility of food as well as basic capitals are ensuring food choices. Considering long-term trends, dietary convergence and adaptation processes affect especially the upcoming African middle class. Mid-sized cities provide an interesting conglomerate of on the one side urban-rural interactions and traditional values and at the other side upcoming impacts of globalization and modernization affects.

So far, research in Ethiopia and the Global South has been mainly done on food security and poverty in rural areas. However, the ongoing transformation processes are already visible in cities and are showing the necessity to analyze dynamics of changing food practices and local spheres of actions in the mid-sized city context of the Ethiopian regional city Mek’ele.