A01=Sarah Besky
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
agronomists
auction house
Author_Sarah Besky
automatic-update
biodynamic
black tea
business
capitalism
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBCC4
Category=JFCV
Category=JHM
Category=JHMC
commodities
COP=United States
cup of tea
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
economics
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fair trade
finance
food science
food studies
india
industrial food science
industrial reform
kolkata
labor
landscape
Language_English
nonfiction
organic
PA=Available
political economy
post colonialism
price
Price_€50 to €100
PS=Active
quality
rainforest alliance
science
softlaunch
tea industry
tea plantations
tea tasters
tea trade
trade
trade economics
Product details
- ISBN 9780520303249
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 May 2020
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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.
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.
