Description
What is the role of quality in contemporary capitalism? How is a product as ordinary as a bag of tea judged for its quality? In her innovative study, Sarah Besky addresses these questions by going inside an Indian auction house where experts taste and appraise mass-market black tea, one of the world's most recognized commodities. Pairing rich historical data with ethnographic research among agronomists, professional tea tasters and traders, and tea plantation workers, Besky shows how the meaning of quality has been subjected to nearly constant experimentation and debate throughout the history of the tea industry. Working across fields of political economy, science and technology studies, and sensory ethnography, Tasting Qualities argues for an approach to quality that sees it not as a final destination for economic, imperial, or post-imperial projects but as an opening for those projects.
Author: Sarah Besky
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 05/12/2020
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780520303256
ISBN10: 0520303253
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Agriculture & Food (see also Political Science | Public Poli
- Business & Economics | Industries | General
Author: Sarah Besky
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 05/12/2020
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780520303256
ISBN10: 0520303253
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Agriculture & Food (see also Political Science | Public Poli
- Business & Economics | Industries | General
About the Author
Sarah Besky is a cultural anthropologist and Associate Professor in the ILR School at Cornell University. She is the author of The Darjeeling Distinction: Labor and Justice on Fair Trade Tea Plantations in India.