Street Food on the Move: A Socio-philosophical approach

In the last decade social and hard scientists have increasingly analysed the issue of street food, which is now become a question of common concern in international public discourse. However, considering present literature and investigations, a socio-philosophical approach to the issue under examination has been until now not properly developed. For this reason, this paper is not aimed at improving an empirical research on street food. Rather, it is interested in developing an innovative methodological approach, which assumes transcultural, intersectional, diachronic and interdisciplinary viewpoints in the analysis of the phenomenon. Taking as a background the very rich theoretical and empirical literature on food (which is difficult to be summarised in a few pages), the paper intends to strengthen a conceptual analysis of street food as a social construction and historical symbol, opening up new theoretical, comparative, sociological and pragmatic perspectives. The normative and critical content of street food refers thus ex negativo to the right to the quality of food and to have a decent and peaceful existence in both post-colonial and post-industrial societies in an interconnected global age. This paper relates in general to a broader project on: The Right toa Decent Life: The Right to the Quality of Food, and in particular to the research: Street Food Moving in History and the World (2011–2013), financed by the Region Lombardy, the University of Milano–Bicocca and the Department of Sociology and Social Research, in partnership with ‘Expo 2015 s.p.a’, that is the organiser of the World Exposition on Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life (1 May - 31 October 2015).