The Perfect Cup of Coffee? The Economy, Ecology and Culture of Coffee

The seminar will look at the agrifood system through the lens of coffee from a feminist and social science perspective and deals with different dimensions of coffee production and consumption – the economic, ecological and socio-cultural.

Coffee production is mostly concentrated in the Global South and coffee has become one of the largest agricultural commodities. The production of coffee is highly embedded in colonial power relations: during the colonial period local food crops have for example been replaced in favor of the cash crop of coffee. However, coffee cultivation is also highly contested so that female farmers in Kenya, for example, resisted structural adjustment in the 1990s and refused to produce coffee by uprooting the coffee trees. Furthermore, many of the coffee-producing areas are affected by the climate crisis and the livelihoods of farmers are already impacted.  

At the same time, coffee consumption holds an important socio-cultural significance and plays a central role in consumers' food and drink habits, especially in Europe. Moreover, coffee shops and cafes often signal change in a region or city and are seen as drivers of gentrification processes. The consumption of specialty coffee and the use of certain equipment, roasting and brewing techniques can be linked to practices of class and social distinction.

The subject of coffee will provide an example to analyze gender relations in their intersection with other categories of social inequalities. We will, for example, discuss: How is the female coffee farmer constructed in coffee marketing? What is the potential of women cooperatives, can they decrease gender inequalities? How is gender produced and reproduced through coffee consumption in private and public spheres?

Literatur

Brownhill, Leigh S.; Kaara, Wahu M., & Turner, Terisa E. (1997): Gender relations and sustainable agriculture: rural women's resistance to structural adjustment in Kenya. Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme.

Kinyanjui, Mary Njeri (2015): Coffee Time. Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon.

Limburg, Aubrey (2013): Large Americano, Extra Masculine: How People Do Gender at The Coffee House. Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, 3. Jg., Nr. 2, S. 1-11.

Stolcke, Verena; Chapman, Mark D. (1988): Coffee Planters Workers and Wives: Class Conflict and Gender Relations on Sao Paulo Coffee Plantations. Springer.

Bemerkung

The content of this course is expanded by the course “Feminist Political Ecology and Ecofeminism: Theoretical debates and political strategies” (Wednesday, 4-6 pm) by Christine Bauhardt. However, students are free to take just one of the two courses.