EATING OUT: (RE)SEARCHING THE LABS OF SOCIA(BI)LITY
EATING OUT: (RE)SEARCHING THE LABS OF SOCIA(BI)LITY

Summary/Abstract: At the crossroads between the private and the public realm, the communist/capitalist nomenklatura, directors and secretaries, families and friends, students, lovers etc., they all share (have and will do) for a while common places, the restaurants – the space within which people may question the daily reality, or reshape future-to-be public/private actions. Being mingled spots for those that may have social action capabilities, the restaurants offer a space of fusion between what is old and new in cultural and national terms, the interconnection of food/music with generative dialogues, the contexts for a range of emotional and/or strategical developments. Chefs, social scientists, designers, musicians, or other socio-economic groups may see and perceive quite differently the quintessence of a restaurant. One of the best places for getting in touch with the experience(s) of such settings is our capital city, particularly its old city centre, involved in an urban regeneration process within which the “pubs and clubs” phenomenon is unstoppable. Here I present some case studies from my fieldwork in Bucharest, done in the spring of 2012.

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