The nation's kitchens
Geneviève Zoia, anthropologist, Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
Laurent Visier, Sociologist, Professor at the University of Montpellier
The result of a relentless investigation, Les Cuisines de la nation sounds the alarm on the industrialization of school canteens: just as the "green" revolution is destroying peasant agriculture, on-site kitchens are disappearing in favor of agribusiness, whose small handful of groups monopolize the collective catering sector in France.
Yet the canteen is a precious opportunity to bring peasants into the school, to reconnect with the living world, and to take a better look at things and people - to seize food as a means of making power relationships visible and transforming them.