Taking the borough market route: an experimental ethnography of the marketplace.

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Taking the Borough Market Route: An

Experimental Ethnography of the Marketplace

Freek Janssens -- 0303011

Freek.Janssens©student.uva.nl

June 2, 2008

Master's thesis in Cultural An-thropology at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Committee: dr. Vincent de Rooij (supervi-sor), prof. dr. Johannes Fabian and dr. Gerd Baumann.

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The River Tharrws and the Ciiy so close; ihis mnst be an important place. With a confident but at ihe same time 1incertain feeling, I walk thrmigh the large iron gales with the golden words 'Borough Market' above il. Asphalt on the floor. The asphalt seems not to correspond to the classical golden letters above the gate. On the right, I see a painted statement on the wall by lhe market's .mpcrintendent. The road I am on is private, it says, and only on market days am [ allowed here. I look around - no market to sec. Still, I have lo pa8s these gales to my research, becanse I am s·upposed to meet a certain Jon hCTe today, a trader at the market.

With all the stories I had heard abont Borongh Market in my head, 1 get confnsed. There is nothing more to see than green gates and stalls covered with blue plastic sheets behind them. I wonder if this can really turn into a lively and extremely popular market during the weekend. In the corner I sec a sign: 'Information Centre. ' There is nobody. Except from some pigeons, all I see is grey walls, a dirty roof, gates, closed stalls and waste. Then I see Jon.

A man in his forties, small and not very thin, walks to me. 'Are you Freak?' 'Yes, but yon pronounce Frayk.' 'Ah, I thought it was strange, bnt, well, it's ymtr name.' We shake hands, as I realise that Jon is totally different than I expected him to be. I expected to find a young tall Scol/;ish man, bnl here stands a lively middle-aged man. 'Come on, I'll show you the market,' he says. He has not much time showing me the market, because tomorrow, Jon is going to Scotland for a sailing trip with friends. Until now, this is my only entrance to the market, so I, wit.h risk of exposing myself, chat with him about sailing, hoping that he might remember me when he gel8 back:.

'And here yov.'ll find the best pork: of the market,' Jon says, pointing at The Ginger Pig. 'Hey Jon, how are you doing,' the friendly b11tcher asks. 'Very well, do me a few sausages for the weekend, alrighl?' Jon bv,ys his san.rnges and we walk on. 'So the market is open on Wednesday?' I ask Jon, trying lo bring the conversation to the rnarket. 'Yeah, sorne are, and we will be open·ing on Thnrsday too soon. '

We walk back to the grey entrance where we met. 'Come, I'll 8how you the basements. ' Behind another old and hardly j1mctioning gate is a 8tair lcadfr1.g down to the basements beneath the market. More grey her,e. And more gates. Jon opens the door with a sign saying '£85/week,' revealing two h11ge refriger-ators and thousands of boxes half standing on each other and half laying on the floor. This is Loch €1 Glen's storage, I learn, and in the fridge .they keep thcfr ware: bacon, smoked salmon, smoked meat, black p11dding et cetera. 'I'll take some of these packages of bacon - Alistair is not going to like it!' 'You know what,' Jon says when we arc back npstairs, 'I have to go now. So here are Uic keys to the basement. And this is the code for the central gales, if they happen to be closed. I'll sec you after I come back from Scotland.'

It was Wednesday, June 6 2007. Confused and relieved, I walk again lhro-agh the market's gales, back to the subway-entrance. In only half an honr Jon had introduced me to the market and to the stall of Loch flj Glen. ~Moreover, he has given me the keys and the entrance-code to the market. Borongh Market started to open up itself to me.

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Preface

'Now you 're really part of the market,' Liz said to me on one evening. I would like to thank all the traders of Borough Market for letting me be part of their market during the summer of 2007.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Vincent de Rooij for his intellectual support, Gm:taaf Houtman for his social ::;up port and .Jon and Alistair for their practical support. Also, I would like to thank Corrado Boscarino for his support in all the above and many more ways.

Finally, l would like to thank my reader for reading this thesis, which, if not being read, is not very useful.

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List of Figures

The market's entrance. 14

2 A map of Borough Market. 15

3 Roast restaurant. . . 17

4 Borough Cheese Company. . 19

5 Two competing ways of presenting tomatoes at the market. 21 6 The Parmesan-trader at the Green Market. 21 7 Street-sign in Bankside . . . 24 8 Letter by James Roberts, 1754 (first page). 27 9 Letter by James Roberts, 1754 (second page). 28 10 Fish stall in the market. . . 36 11 Porta Palazzo market in Turin, Ita.ly. . . 42

12 Porta Palazzo is a 'traditional' market. . 43

l:~ Screens at Borough Market. . . 47 14 White Cross Street Market. . . . 48 15 Loch &J Glen and Orkney Rose. . . . 49

Hi Conflation in the Borough Market area. 50

17 Markett:> in London.. . . 51

18 San Lorenzo market in Florance, Italy. . 52

19 Borough Market and the railways. . . . 56 20 The 'hut:>tle and buntle' in Melissa'n market. 61

21 A map of Three Crown Square. 70

22 Three Crown Square. . . 71 23 Sampling and Dripping. . . 79 24 Diagram of the Borough Market theatre. 85

25 The J·nbilee Market. . . . 88

26 New Spitalfields Market. . . . 90

27 Bill'ingsgate Fish Market. . . . 92 28 Jon and Miguel are preparing haggis-tempura. 100 29 Rogier plays the guitar. . . 102 30 The view from the market's offices. . . 110 31 The Borough Market Autumn Event invitation. 111

All pictures, unless stated otherwise, are taken by the author, 2007, London.

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1 Introduction

T·fotorically, the firnt bridge of London had many function::i. Not only did it offer the people a possibility to cross the river, it abo offered the City of London a possibility to control who and what came into and left the City. Because it bas long been the only bridge over the river, London Bridge developed into a busy area of trade. Still today, when passing London Bridge or when exiting its modern alternative, the London Bridge tnbe station, I am confronted with an old market. Words in gold, carefully spelled out on the street ju1:1t at the foot of the bridge, direct me to the Borough Market.

1.1 The Urban Marketplace

Urban markets are disappearing (Eastwood 1995), but at the same time they are becoming more popular then ever (Harris 2004; Lane 2005). Although markets like Borough Market are often very old, they experience today a revival in popularity. Especially 'traditional' farmern markets make a comeback in the modern city (Youngs 2003; Winter 2005). Voted tbe number one foodmarket and the mrn;t popular place by Londoners, Borough Market transformed from a forgotten and shunned place into a place that attracts young people, influential cooks and television shows. We see the ~mme seemingly parapoxical development in other foodmarket,; and food-related issues like the Amsterdam Noordermarkt and the Italian Slow Food initiatives, to name but a few. In America, the land of the original copy (Eco 1986), a completely new market like Borough Market is erected, complete with history, in the southern harbour-area in Manhattan:

New Amsterdam (La Valva 2006).

Food is indeed an important aspect of everybody's life and a topic in much anthropological writing (Mintz & Bois 2003; Janssen::i 2007). Food h; scientifi-cally interesting, it is enjoyable, but it i,; also highly political (,;ee, for example, tbe documentary Garcia 2004). We eat every day and upon experiencing a movement towards extremes in possibilities -· one can choose to eat hamburgers each day or to chew organically produced carrots - we become more and more aware of what we eat. Thh,; could be one of the reasons that markets such as Borough Market are becoming popular and deserve, therefore, our attention as anthropologists. In this thesis, I investigate London's finest foodmarket.

In London's web of the underground, Borough Market is but an insignificant ;;top. Nevertheless, it is part of this larger network which we call 'London,' the world's most researcbed and written about place (Taylor 2004: 298). For the contemporary anthropologist, cities are at the same time the most interesting and important settings to study as well as the most difTicult: in the city, all times and places come together (Auge 1999: 91). This is also more generally recognised by Arjun Appadurai when he comments on the role of the anthropol-ogist as a researcher in tbe era of globalisation (Appadurai 1997; see also Smart & Smart 2003; Sch~iJer 2004). Although London's underground is ending, Lon-don itself is everywhere and a study like the present one has to ask the reader to ignore some of the traditional barriers between discipline;; and follow me on

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an interdisciplinary journey.

In London, the office worker passes the shoe-maker on his way to work, while the shoe-maker is busy getting a beggar away frorn his shopping window. Newly arrived immigrants meet a conservative Londo11er in front of the British Museum which ::;hows many of Europe's oldest pieces of art. Indeed, the plural city is in a sense 'an aesthetic space of contrasting lifestyles' (Wcrbner 2001: 671). In the city, people experience themselves in the confrontation with the other and it is therefore precisely in the city that a diversity of selves can come about (Hannerz 1980: 224). As Ulf Hannerz argues:

The city ... is an environment where there are many and varied ways of making oneself known to othern, and one where a great deal of manipulations of baclrntage information is possible. The opportuni-ties are there, in the social structure. What people do with them, and how consciously they seize upon them, can vary considerably (1980: 232).

For modern anthropologists, Hannerz continues, 'cities ... are good to think with, as we try to grasp the networks of relatiorn>hips which organise the global ecumene of today.' They are, furthermore, 'places with especially intricate in-ternal goings-on, and at the same time reach out widely into the world, and toward one another' (quoted in I3estor 2001: 17). As a 'gateway-locality' the city is simultaneously at the periphery of' a larger area as well as a centre for expansion through regional, national and international network::; (Cohen 2000: :l64). With the Square Mile, Westmin::;ter and the West Encl, London is simul-taneously at the core of international networks of sea.pet: - financially, but also culturally - and at the network's borders: it touches far away places and time::: and goes everywhere the network goes. As such, it makes sense to think of London as a city without borders (Harrison 2006).1

The city is part of a larger network which indicates its borders and its centres. It exist, Taylor argues, 'as part of a wider network of flows that create it, reproduce it, and therefore define it' (Taylor 2004; Hee also Harrison 2006). It is precisely because it is a 'networked city' that London - a city of a diflicnlt to determine group of 'nations' (Taylor 2001) is a global city (Pain 2006, 2007; Beaverntock, Smith & Taylor 2003). Thi::; network i::; constantly changing and as such it changes the relations in the network. London constantly reinvent8 itself and with it the world with which it is linked (R. G. Smith 2007).

In this reinvention, global citie::; like London integrate the economic and cultural activity around the production and consumption arts, architecture, fashion, de::;ign, food and entertainment (Yeoh 2005: 946). In the modern urban foodrnarket all the::;c aspect;; come together. In the market, one buys a special

1 _{Micheal Hardt and Antonio Negri formulate on the same basis their rather pessimistic}

concept of 'Empire' as the now global order which is without a core or a periphery and without any boundaries. Empire is the omnipresent and unlimited, but also relusivc sovereign in the globalised world. Jn my thesis, however, I do not focus on Empire in a globaliscd world, but rather on the ways people arc still able, in the globalising world, to use their agency (Hardt

& Negri 2000).

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kind of food, one is entertained by watching the latest fashion or artistic displays and one enjoy::> the ancient architecture. Later at home, one sees the movies and television-programmes which are shot in the rnarket. While cities offer people many possibilities, it is in the market that the potential of interaction is even bigger. On a large scale, cities are the intersection of peoples' lives. Within the city, markets are concentrations of network;;. In the market, the global and the local interact. It is here that the Sardinian shepherd sells his cheese to the London academic. In citie;;, markets are the places where the network is mrnt dynamic, most innovative but a.lso most challenged. Also historically, urban market;; were the heart;; of the cities, the places where mm;t people meet and interact to create the city (Plattner 1989b: 171; :oee also Henry 1994). As such, markets are crucial in the cultural reinvention of modern-day global cities.

Because marketplaces bring about even more unexpected meetings than cities, this necessarily introduces into anthropology the sense of place (Han-nerz 1980: 306). As a concept, place is much discussed in anthropology and related disciplines. Historically, the market and the place were tightly inter-woven (Sharon Zukin, quoted in Bestor 2001: 76). Markets were centres in localised networks. Today, the market consists of a place where people and goods from all over the world meet. The urban market is now only a point in a much wider network. Within this context, Theodor Bestor investigates the relationship among cities, markets and globalisation. As he notices, markets are nowadays 'nowhere in particular and everywhere all aL once' (2001: 76). In the market, interaction is chaotic, it is indeterminable and therefore a ;;tudy of the market promises to be exciting and creative.

1.2 From Market to Borough

The question I ask in this thesis starts from a question which might seem strange in the first place, but promit:es to be extremely interesting and relevant. Stum-bling upon the revival of an ancient market in the centre of modern London, I want to find out what Borough Market is, in a unique sense.

Before any one will prote;;t and tell me that it is not at all appropriate any more to look at e;;sences of things, or markets, l have to explain that, through the reading of Hannah Arendt (2004: 180), it became dear to me that this quec;tion is not just outdated and obsolete, but philosophically impossible to answer. Thi:s is probably also the reason that anthropological or phiJ013ophical investigations tend to focus on questiori;; of why things happen as they happen or are as they are. Indeed, upon answering the question what Borough Market is, I would be giving a mere definition of the market l would describe or interpret the characteristics of the market which it shares with other phenomena, like being in London, being ancient, attracting tourists and so on. However, this summarising of the market's general characterh;tics necessarily misses the specificness of the market. Rather, I have to ask who th<; market i.s. Which people make up the market and how are their lives connected to and involved with each other in the market? By asking who Borough Market i;;, I search not for characterit:tics that help me to define the market, but I try to undernLand

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and feel the way the market lives and acts.

In writing about my findings, then, I am warned by Johannes Fabian agairnt the representation of the lives of customers and traders in the market. Because representation logically presupposes a 'real' or represented which is exchanged in the text for the 'copy' or the representation, a thesis that claims to represent the lives of people will be characterised precisely by the omission of these people (Fabian 1990: 754-755). Wherever the anthropologist represents the people in the market, it is this representation, rather than the people themselves, who are present in the text. There is no space left for the represented and without any awareness, they are forgotten.

In fact, Fabian states that '[u]ltirnately, anthropology's task is to give pres-ence to those who, if at all, are spoken of only in absentia' (2006: 145, emphasis

in original). In this thesis, therefore, I will not try to represent the traders or the customers of the Borough Market. Rather, I will try to find a way to bring forward these people I will :oearch for way:o to allow them on the stage together with me. As such, I hope to contribute to Fabian's important anthropological problem.

In the market, I got to know many people and it is by giving a phenomenolog-ical account of the market that I try to bring alive all these people. In carefully

dec;cribing the ways I experienced the market, I take into account all the aspects that make up this market. My description i8 therefore necessarily holistic,

al-though not all encompassing because totality as such is, of course, inconceivable (Dasgupta 2007: 1 J). While T wander through the market and try to see, bear and [eel all its different parts, I sometimes move fast and other times slow down. I see many things at the same time but I also pa.use and stare at something for a while. Rather than moving, like Favero did when he describes New Delhi

Janpath market, in a 'starry place' (200:)), l move around in the market like l

am taking London's underground; it is dark, but every now and then I see a bright light in one or another station. Starting from the metaphor of the Lube, I take a rhizomatic way in my experience of Borough Market:

there is no heart, but only a problem - that is, a distribution of notable points; there is no centre but always decenterings, series, from one to another, with the limp of a presence and an absence -of an excess, -of a deficiency. Abandon the circle, a faulty principle -of return; abandon our tendency to organi0e everything into a sphere. All things return on the straight and narrow, by way of a straight and labyrinthine line (Foucault 1970)

The theory that emerges in this thesis is therefore at the 0ame time the practice of my research. As Fabian 0uggested, it allows the market and the people in it to move along with me (Fabian 2001: 7), to invent new spaces. In this rxoces0, my theory and my approach basically consist in accepting the 'risk' that I might encounter unexpected 'problems.' It is this attitude which allows me to experieuce precisely those thing;; that seem, in firnt 0ight, impossible but which might turn out to be extremely relevant (Haraway .Hl97: :39). Michel

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Serres comments on the relationship between theory and practice in science a::; follows;

the history of science runs backwards and forwards over a complex network of paths which overlap and cross, forming nodes, peab ancl crossroads, interchanges which bifurcate into two or several route:-;. A multiplicity of different times, diverne disciplines, conceptions of science, gronps, institutions, capitals, people in agreement or in con-flict, machines and objects, predictions and unfore;:;een dangers, form together a shifting fabric which repreroents faithfully the complex hiro-tory of science (quoted in Brown 2002: 9).

In my story of the market, I create a route and along the way J sketch parts of the stations I pass. I try to give space to customers to tell their ;;tories and I invite traders of the market to present thermelves. Where possible, I hope that the reader will smell the fresh basil through this paper. Just as food in the market is an important aspect of the market to me, the customers and the traders, the food I write a.bout in thit; thesb will hopefully also affect the reader. Not only is it people in the market who have agency, but also the either material, like food and buildingo, or immaterial, like emptiness or sounds (Werb-ner 2001: 674, 679; Favero 2003: 555; Ferrero 2002: 196) - objects in people's worlds (Latour 1998). Just like persons, objects affect and a.re affected by and in this process they become part of the meaningful relatiorn that are created. As Appadurai has put it, objects, like people, have social lives, they are 'regimes

of value in space and time' (Appadurai 1980: 4). Following Latour and othern, 1 break here with the classical division between humans and objects (Saldanha 2003), between objective and subjective, between 'true' ~nd fa.be,' and abo, consequently, between materialism and idealism, since materialism, because it considered objects as raclica.lly different from people, is in fact an idealist theory too (Latour 2007). 2

My thesis calls for an open mind; that is to say, it proposes to start looking at things without any prewpprnitions. Not only does th~'i mean that I drop the assumption that humans are in any way special compared Lo objects, buL I also, on a more practical scale, 'bracket off' our understanding of macro-social net.worlrn and start looking at organisatiorn from a micro-level (Law 1992), from the most direct experience possible. I will try to bring the market. to life by a det.a.iled description of my experience and the atmosphere (Favero 2003: 551). Next. to an open mind, this thesis at>ks the reader to actively follow me on my journey. Rhizomatically, I will recall my own memory and the thoughts that were expressed to me by my fellow ctmtomers and t.radern. Hopefully, the reader will be able to relate to my experience through the writing and the imaget> and because words and visual impressions a.re by far not the only - perhaps not even the best. -- ways to meet each other in a related world, I will offer the reader a possibility to actually smell, hear, feel and taste a little bit of the

2_{1\farshall Sahlins even argues jokingly that 'materialism must be a form of idealism, since}

it's wrong - too' (2002: 6).

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market. Although never objective, I try to stay alert, to realise that my method and theory affect and is affected by my object. As such, I will provide an experimental ethnography of the marketplace.

1.3 Structure

Borough Market, like any other market, is much more than an economic ex-change of goods based on supply and demand. In fact, De la Pradelle argues righUy,

purely economic analysis of exchange always involves a reasoned con-struction of social reality rather than simple empirical observation. To focus on the value exchanged on markets, while dismissing as secondary the ephemerical society that takes shape around a mar-ket stall or counter, is to engage in an abstraction of the same na-ture (though perhaps slightly more legitimate) as considering the potlatch to be nothing more than a system of interec;t- bearing loans (2006: 3).

The market, rather, consists of a wide and complex network of people, places and objects and in the following pages I will introduce some of the actors in the market to my reader. It is precisely in the interaction between the other, I argue, that these actors step forward and begin to show who they are. The customern become customers only when they come to the market, when they talk to traders or when they try a piece of cheese. The traders, in the same way, are traders only in relation to the ctrntomers or the market's management. 'All these are heterogeneous aciors that connect to form a particular network which

botb enables and constrains any constituent's agency' (Saldanha 2003: 421). To understand who the market hi, therefore, I explore the ways various people create this particular network that is called Borough Market. I will enter the market and try to understand the worlds of the people involved. I will look at the ways the various actors experience the space of the market and create their own worlds in it. In the first part of this thesis, I will sketch the contour;,; of the customers' market - I will 'do' the market. Here, I will show, through words hut also through images, the way I experienced the market as a custorner and I will also let other customers tell something about their experiences. Rather than a structured chapter with a layer of theory placed upon a basiH of ethnographic findings, I will gradually explore the market and as such also the theoretical approaches that seem helpful to me. Unexpectedly, customers might appear, giving their view -- admittedly through my words - of the market.

ln 'Walking to the Market,' I start formulating a notion of space which emerged to me while joining a tour through the market. Through the reading of GilleH Deleuze and Michel de Certeau - the last one, according to some, being under-represented in anthropological theory (Napolitano & Pratten 2007) - I realise that the experiences of practised relatiom; shape people's space. As the necessary component of space, then, I identify time while Jeremy -- my first customer - is 'Helping in the Market.' History is present in both the market's

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legal status as well as in its architecture. Both clistant times and places are invoked as the building blocks of the space of the market. Finally, in 'Going from the Market,' I compare the concept of ::;pace, the way spaces are created, to such concepts as 'omnitopia.' Here, l find out that customers of the market, like Meli::;sa, 'Want the Market' -- they all create a ::;pace

Of

an ethical market which invite::; them to partake, to join the world of the traclern.

Becmrne the cu::;tomern are directed in their experience::; of the market to-wards the traclern, I decide to go into the traders' world. · Haphazardly, my research changes direction, it switches the tracb it is on. Although this might feel uncomfortable at first, the two parts of this the::;i::; arc in fact related to each other but not in the conventional way. Where there io; no cmrnal relation be-tween the first and the second part and where there is no need to take precisely tbis route, I accept the risk of ending in strange places. I accept a rhizomatic journey, an open, experimental ethnography.

In the second part, I closely follow some traders of the market. l introduce Jon, who will explain his market to tbe reader. Here, I experience the ways in which the traders relate to the customers, to the market's management and to themselves. In their struggle for an own market, the traders create a market in which 'Customers are Excluded.' Rather than accepting the customers' play of belonging, the traders make a market which is not for customer::;. Neither, T

learn, do they allow wholesalers in the market. Although the wholesale market in Borough Market is unique with respect to other London markets, 'Wholesalers are Dismissed,' they are talked out of the market's 8tory. I explore, next, how 'Traders form a Community' which is based on the principles of exclu::;ion and fun. Long hours in the pub make me understand - even after many beers -- that the community that the traders form becomes only becau::;e the traders carefully make it their own. Towards the encl of my journey, then, I get introduced in the 'War with the Big Four,' in which l will also take my reader. By complex Lies of dependencies, T ::;how how the 'Big Four,' by cornent of the market'::;

management, bave more power that the Trustees. The frustrated relationship between the 'Big Four' and the traders can be understood·, I argue finally, by thinking of the 'Big Four' as parasite::; in J\iJ.ichel Serres' terms. By com;tantly buffeting the trader::;' space, the parasite actualises the trader's potentiality to use their agency in creating their own, undefinable, space.

I could not help, in the process, but becoming a trader rny::;elf. I thus enter the world of tbc market twice, firnt as a customer and secondly a::; a trader. Because the relationships that I experience arc often cbanging, chaotic or plainly incornistent, it is impossible to analytically describe the market. Ratber, by looking through the customers' and the traders' eyes and by talking and listening to many customers and traders, T present here my phenomenological experience of the market. Tram;gre:osing the restrictiorn that paper and ink bear, I also include food as a means of pre::;enting my findings: in the end of this the::;i::;, I will allow the reader to taste some of my most important experience::; through recipm by which the reader can actually experience the gastronomy of the market. This approach i::; not jtrnt a stylistic or theoretical approach. Because the market is necessarily chaotic, a fixation of it in time and place on paper would definitely

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miss the point. By defining the market's essence, the market lom;es its essence. By looking for the market's existence, it seizes to exist.

I end this thesis by some provisional conclusiom; about both the market in its wider network and about me as a researcher in the market. I therefore Louch upon some aspects of a broader scientific debate, to which I hope to contribute through this thesis. By invoking some ideas of Jacques Ranciere, I unfold a short, pernonal vision on anthropology as a discipline.

Relevance Hopefully, my thesis proves to be relevant to the discipline of anthropology and the wider network of scientists interested in culture. In my thesis, I first offer a better understanding of both markets and cities. While urban foodmarkets are at the same time disappearing and becoming more and more popular, I set out to investigate what the most famous of these markets is. I argue, throughout this thesis, that we can start to underntand the market if we accept that it is dynarnic and undefinable as such. By allowing chaos in thio study, the reader will hopefully begin to experience the market in interaction with the actors that I present. As a thick ethnographic study T propose new

and experimental approaches to understand urban markets, the creation and imagination of spaces and the articulation of communities in a modern, urban world.

Regarding the academic relevance of my thesis, I try tolormulate an answer to the problem that anthropologists face when they want to describe what it is that they study. Here, I argue that a detailled exploration of people's worlds will enable the reader to experience the researched space herself. Not only word:-> and images but precisely the tasting of food is an innovative and valuable way of allowing the reader to partake in the interaction of understanding each other. My ethnographic conclusions about the market can thus be extended to more general remarks about anthropology as a scientific discipline.

Furthermore, I hope to shed light on Fabian's question of writing about peo-ple while giving presence to them at the same time. By creatively combining both anthropological and philosophical insights I propose an approach to etlmo-graphic research where theory and practice are tightly interwoven and where the author is dependent not only on the people he or she studies, but also on the willingness of the reader to experience the text. In short, I ask the reader to join me on a free ethnographic journey to understand both Borough Market and my suggested anthropological approach. Indeed, I argue that it is precisely by the iuteraction with the reader, the author and the people that any understanding can come about. In the encl, I hope that my thesis will contribute to keeping the deeper theoretical debate about the fundamentals of anthropology alive and exciting.

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2 Doing Borough Market: A Customers'

Per-spective

When T firnt came to Dorough Ma.rket, I expected to find a market of the kind which is disappearing in modern, global cities like London. The beloved market0 of Covent Garden, Spitalfielcl::;, Billingsgate and many more had to make place to either high profit office-buildingc; (in the ca0e of Spitalfields) or happy spending tourists (in the case of Covent Garden) - and all of them became ugly, soul-less markets comfortably near to high-way routes leaving just a:o soul-le;;c; piecec; of land in the ancient city centre. Borough Market seemed to have c;urvived thb cleaning of the inner city, being on the same location for centurie;;.

I was enthusiastic to point out that city-planners in London had been mistak-ing, that an old market fits perfectly well in the centre and that it is, moreover, an important aspect of central-London culture. However, it very soon became clear to me that Borough is not a place to do your daily shopping for groceries. Not only is it extremely expensive -- financially preventing access to the working-class people who used to live in the area - but it is also doing something with you in a way other markets don't. The things you see, hear, taste and feel in Borough Market are both exotic and desirable, attracting a crowd of a very special kind.

The market - which, although it is often experienced as such, is not a farners' market because it does not officially conform to the requirements (Youngs 2003; .Jones 2003) - is full of enthusiastic customers every day the market is open. They arrive generally one hour before opening to look for the freshest and strangest foh and the best pieces of giant puffball mushrooms - both items you would hardly find in an ordinary supermarket. Then, around lunchtime, a second fiow of customers enters the market to have a quality lunch with colleagues from the ofiice. Around closing Lime, finally, the last people looking for bargains make a show. Borough Market is much more than a. place to do ;;ornc shopping. Borough Market is a place that people 'do.' vVith this in mind, I wondered who 'do' Borough Market and how do they 'do' it.

2.1 Walking to the Market

Attracted by previous readings, an interest in market;,; and mo;,;t of all the smell of fresh basil and Parmesan cheese, I find myself t>tanding before the green iron gates of Borough Market, on Borough High Street, ju;,;t »outh of London Bridge. The smell of the fresh herbs leads me to the left, while the darknesn of the gate attractn me to the right. Noit>es come from everywhere - from the crowded pub on the corner, the busy road behind me, the railways above me and the market in front of me. I think of Rick Dolphijn, who, while writing a Deleuzian ethics of consumption, says that it is sense that brings that which expre1:>ses it into existence. 'It is in the act of t>ensing,' he argues, 'in the confrontation, in the event, that matter is actualised, is articulated' (Dolphijn 2004: 16; also Dolphijn 2006). While I am getting overwhelmed by the ;,;mell of freshly grilled scallops,

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I start to understand why the market is, or rather becomes, how I experience

it. It is in my experience that I can relate to it, that I can give it meaning and therefore it is in the sensation that the market occurs. Quoting Deleuze, Dolphijn proposes that there is no ontology of es::;ence ·- there is only ontology of sense (Dolphijn 2004: 16).

It is only through my experiences that I can know the world l am in. Al-though it i::; indeed true, as Deleuze insists, that 'the thinker is necessarily solitary and solipsistic' (quoted in Arnott 2001: ll:)), his solipsism is unlike Hegel's negative solipsism, Satre's loneliness or Husserl's autophenomenology (Roy 2007: 12). Rather, it is a methodology to gain knowledge, creativity and ethical awareness, 'an activity which is at the ::;ame tirne more po::>itive and productive, but less risky and destructive than other methods such as reliance upon drugs and alcohol' (Arnott 2001: 120). It is an activity through which one knows oneself and only through that can know the world. As Arnott ex-emplifies, '[i]t is not then a Socratic "know thyself" in order to accept oneself, but rather a Nietzschean overcoming of self through comprehensive knowledge and understanding of that self, what made it possible and what can nnmake it'

(2001: 121). ,

It is clear, therefore, that Deleuze's empiricism is a supeTioT', or tmnscen-dental. empiT'icism (Moulard 2002: 325). Rather than finding reality through

impressio1rn, Deleuze's empiricism i::> based on the principles of dij]'eTence and Tepetilion. The history of Western philosophy has falsely, according to Deleuze,

focused on the problem of reality and the nature of being: it has been concerned about IS. Im>tead, we have to look not at identity, but at the relations between

those who experience. We have to focus on the principle of externality - that is, we have to embrace the conjunction AND (Chao 2003: 84),3 _{not, of course,}

as a relation between two beings, but as a relation in itself (Taner 2005: 69). As Deleuze says:

This is the secret of empiricism. Empiricism is by no means a reac-tion against concepts, nor a simple appeal to lived experience. On the contrary, it undertakes the most insane creation of concepts ever seen or heard. Empiricism is a mysticism and a mathematicisrn of concepts, but precisely one which treats the concept as object of an encounter, as a here-and-now, or rather as an Erewhon from which emerge inexhaustibly ever new, differently distributed 'heres' and 'nows.' Only an empiricist could say: concepts are indeed things, but things in their free and wild state, beyond 'anthropological pred-icates' (2004: 6-7).

Here, Deleuze and Bourclieu agree when the latter t>ays that 'what does exist is a space of Telationships (Bourclieu 1985: 735; see also Friedman 1991: 9). As

:Jidentity is nowadays to be formed out of multiple, hybrid subjectivities, which can even contradict each other. As Papastergiadis argues, the concept also stresses, in its radical form, that 'identity is not t.he combination, accumulation, fusion or synthesis of various components, but an energy field of different forces' (Papastergiadis 1997: 258). Bhabha spoke in this context of a 'third space' (in Papastergiadis 1997: 258).

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Deleuze has argued above, Bourdieu suggests 'first, a break wiLh the teudency to privilege substances - here, the real groups, whose number, limits, rnembern, etc., one claims to define - at the expense of relationships' (Bourdieu 1985: 327). In order to overcome notions of objectivity and subjectivity, of the real and the fake, we have to think of difference and repetition. As a necessary condition for this, we have to abandon identity, we have 'to free omselves from the philosophy of representation [and] free ourselves from Hegel from the opposition of pred-icates, from contradiction and negation, from all of dialectics' (Foucault 1970). ln a way, then, we have to confront stupidity, because categories, by creating a space for the operation of truth and falsity, reject stupidity. 'Difference can only be liberated through the invention of ftn acategorical thought ... [t]o think in the form of the categories is to know the trnth so that it can be distinguished from the false; to think "acategorically" is to confront a black stupidity' (Foucault 1970).

By accepting AND instead of 18 as the basic concern of philot:ophers, Deleuze rejects Hegel's negative dialectics, which, by synthesis, eliminates the contra-diction between thesis and antithesis (Borradori 2001). As Foucault explains Deleuze's argument, '[t]he dialectical sovereignty of the sam€ com;ists in permit-ting differences to exist but always under the rule of the negative, as an instance of nonbeing' (1970). In Nietzsche's eternal return, then, Deleuze find;.; a con-stantly dynamic world, an affirmation of becoming and difference (Taner 2005: 66; Bearn 2000): 'The event ... is always an effect produced entirely by bodies colliding, mingling, or separating, but this effect is never of a corporeal nature; it is the intangible, inaccessible battle that turns and repeats itself a Lhousancl times around Fabricius, above the wounded Prince Andrew' (Foucault 1970). Much more than the dialectical move, Deleuze aims for a dialogic move (Favero 2003: 576). R.epetiUon is repetition in difference, it is tl1e being of becoming (Chao 2003: 86).

A philosophical concept that comes to mind immediately in this context it;

the notion of intersubjectivity. In a study that focusses on the relationship between various people in the market and the imagined worlds that are con-structed out of this relationship, it seerm; that I cannot bypass this theoretical concept. Indeed, when intersubjectivity is understood as a process that occurs between different people, that is, when it is understood as a dialogical process, I agree with the usefulness of it.

However, the very concept ofintenmbjectivity is understood quiet differently by Edmund Husser! (Beyer 2007). In his interpretation, Husser! holds intersub-jectivity to mean the empathy that one can feel in relation to the other. Rather than a true interaction with the other, Husser! describes intersubjectivity as the personal empathic experience. As such, the intersuhjective experience is still a solipsistic experience.

On the other hand, but following the idea of the solipsistic empathic experi-ence, Husser! argues that it is precicely through the intersubjective experience that we can objectively consitute and know ourselves. Upon experiencing em-pathy towards another, we cannot but assume that the other <~periences the spatio-temporal world in c;imilar ways as we do - in Husserl's words,

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for-everyone' (quoted in Russell 2006: 163). Hence, my world must be objective. Here, Husser! still holds to the distinction between the subjective and the ob-jective, a clistinction which is, as I have argued, one that we have to overcome.

Rat.her than a solipsistic experience or a search for the objective, f will speak of a dialogical experience in which the various actorn start. to know each other and through these reciprocal perspectives they start to understand themselves. More like Alfred Schutz, then, I understand the dialogical experience not as a transcendental inter::mbjective experience, but much more like a group of people ma.king music together, like interaction in freedom or, in his words, a 'mutual tuning-in rclatiornhip' (Schutz 1964: 161; see also Schutz 1970: 51 et al. and Va.itkus 1991: 93). Making music is interaction in a free and inventive, mean-ingful cont.ext, a creative play without any strict rules. A musical work cannot. be grasped in its totality (Schiitz 1964: 172), just as in the dialogue, interaction is possible precicely becatrne the concepts remain vague. It b for this reason that I will not use the concept of internubjectivity here, but rather the idea. of a dialogue in-becoming.

The many people who come to the market. and interact make up the market's dialogical becoming. It is through the other that people experience t.herrnelves: in relation to the cm;tomers can the traders be traders and vice versa. In order

to understand this relation that allows the market to become, I have to look at the way people engage in the market, at. the way they actively shape the market a.round them in a movement with their experienced surroundings. AND

is not a position of rest between two points, but the actual agency that allows the relation to repeat. and differ it allows the relation to become. Giddens explains, in this respect, that

..

[a.Jn adequate account. of human agency must, first, be connected to a theory of the acting subject and ::;econcl, must 8ituate action in

time and space as a continuous flow of conduct, rather than treating

purposes, reasons, etc., as somehow aggregated together (Giddens, in Barnett 2005: 1).

We can accept Herndl and Licona's claim that 'agency is a social location and

opportunity into and out of which rhetors, even postmodern subjects, move' (quoted in Barnett 2005: 16). Both theorists argue furthermore that contem-porary notions of agency must in some way account for its locatedne::5s in space; 'social practise, context, and space, ... constitute a. place in which agency is enacted. But this place is temporal as well. A "place in time," ... where the material and the temporal combine to com;titute the possibility of agency and authority' (quoted in Barnett 2005: 25).4

4_{Soja suggest furthermore that 'conceptions of agency and the agent function must. keep}

in mind the "triple dialectic" or "trialectics of being" - including spatialit.y, historicality, and sociality ·· informing the production of everyday relations within the conditions of postmod-ernism' (in Garnett 2005: 25-26). In brief, 'Soja's understanding of spatiality as a similar t.rialcctic in which three distinct spatialities-perceived (or "real" space), conceived (or "imag-ined" space), and lived (or "real-and-imag"imag-ined" space)·-collectivoly produce space within the conditions of late capitalism' (Barnett 2005: 22; see also Casey 2001).

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(a) Official entrance (b) Stoney Street

Figure 1: The market's entrance.

2.1.1 Space

The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed. We are at a moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein (Foucault, in Toorn 1997).

Although, as Foucault argues above, the present epoch can be characterised as the epoch of space which is less that of a developing through time, the two are historically connected. Lefebvre takes us back to the ancient Greeks, who identified 'space' as an 'absolute,' composed of fragments which all had their particular existence. Rome, and in its footsteps Christian thought, connected all these spaces and then split them up in various parts, each of which had a unique 'owner.' Private property, here, gave rise to the building of villas, which grew out to villages. As produced spaces of accumulation, then, these villages made up marketplaces. The success of these marketplaces made them overwhelm the countryside by forming networks with other marketplaces in other parts of the world. Here, the city was born (in Westfall 1994: 346). Clearly, thus, the concept of space has itself a history of developing through time -- the two can not be understood seperately. Yet, as Foucault rightly points out, today our experience of time is that of a network of interaction -- it is our experience of space.

Thinking about Foucault's comment on space, I still stand undecided before the market's entrance. Although the main entrance is at the High Street, a glimpse through the gates is enough to see why the street on the left, Stoney Street, is much busier (see figure 1). In Stoney Street people are surrounded by the brightest tomatoes, the largest fish, the oldest cheeses and a lively crowd, while Three Crown Square, the market-square just behind the gates, is almost closed off by vans. When I take a look in Bedale Street, then, I get the impression

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that the market never ends; the shop-keepern here litterally come out to the street to continue the market by carving their ham just in front of their shops. Everywhere are traders, not only in the places I thought were the market, but also outside, in the subway, in the kiosks. Everywhere I look I see people walking with an apron: traders of the Borough Market. Confused T decide to enter Stoney Street.

If I was to make a map of the market, it would look tmmething like figure 2. The map indicates the market's position in the area, and therefore implicitly in

Southwark

Street Borough High st.

London Bridge Underground Station

Figure 2: A map of Borough Market, including the railways in grey and the cov-ered areas within the dotted lines. The Green Market is only partially covcov-ered and extenc\8 up to the clashed line at Cathedral Street.

London and in the rest of the world. Further, it identifies the necessarily unique places of the Green Market, the Jubilee Market, the Three Crown Square and so forth, organising it in a web of different spots. These spots create 'the order (of whatever kind) in accord with which elements are distributed in relationship8 of coexistence' (Certeau 1984: 117; see also R. G. Smith 2007). In other words, the organisation of the various elements of the market create its place.

A map, however, cannot be entered. Nor can one decide not to enter a map. In standing on the High Street, I am able to decide to enter the market through Stoney Street, hereby acting upon the place of the street as such. By the smell of the fresh basil, I actualise the space of the market. As De Certeau argues,

'a space exists when one takes into conoideration vectors of direction, velocities,

and time variables' ( Certeau 1984: 117). The changing relations between and within various places produce space; 'space is a practised place.'

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So space is necessarily movement - movement, dialogue and conflict, ac-cording to Van Toorn, are primary (1997) - it creates, reshapes and cancels the relations between the various places (oee abo Gieryn 2000; Becker 2003). Especially in a world-city like London (Sasoen 2003), the space is without limits (I-Iannerz 1980: 66, 73) and 'distances, and boundaries, are not what they used to be.' The city is 'engaged in transformations and recombinations of mean-ings and meaningful forms which are changing the cultural map of the earth' (I-Iannerz 1996: 3, 127; see abo Ha.nnerz 1980: 15, llO; !vJarcm;e 2005). Upon entering the market through Stoney Street, I reshape not the map of the market as I sketched it in figure 2, but the route (Crang, Dwyer & Jaclrnon 2003: 142) in the landscape (Hirsch 1995) of the market. On my way through the market I create, as all the other things and persons in the market do, my own Borough

Market route.

2.1.2 Celia's Gastro-Tour in an Ecological Market-Place

Every Thur::;da.y, Borough Market is the scene of a. BBC-produced cookery pro-gram which features a. cook who shops in the market and prep1'tres dishes out of these products in a. temporarily kitchen set up in the market. The famous British tv-chef and restaurant-owner Jamie Oliver shops regula,rly in this mar-ket and the 'Dickensian' scene of the marmar-ket has attracted many film producers (Newman & Smith 2000: 15, 20). Tt is hardly ::;urprising that in a place where people a.re more than willing to pay to take professional photograph:; or :;hoot television-programs, other commercial activities a.rise. One of these activities is the gastro-tour I joined where Celia., an authority on food-writing and food related television programs, introduces her guests to the highlights of the mar-ket. It is through Celia's tours that many cu::>tomern - some unfamiliar with the market, but others regular visitors - experience the market and hence create its space, by being in it (see also Low 2003).

At ten AM, I stand in the middle of a. market which i8_ only ju8t opening. Many stalls a.re still closed and from all sides men and women are carrying bas-kets of organic lettuce, bucbas-kets of oriental tea. and piles of giant Dutch cheeses on wooden carriages. In front of me is the entrance of Roast, a. new a.ncl exclu-sive restaurant above the market which serves lunches and dinners prepared of Borough Market products. Roast would be the last re:ota.ura.nt that you would associate with a market but this is not the case with Borough Market. Jt

stands out in terms of architecture, being situated in the centre of the market and leading up to Stoney Street, where its fa.ga.de with its big silver columns and theatrical windows impressively conquers the rough steel construction of the railway bridge.

Roast seems not to fit in the market, while at the Ha.me time it fits perfectly.

Ii, b bra.ncl new, elegant and big, while the market i:o ancient, chaotic and full of tiny pathway::;. On the other hand, Roast is trendy, expensive and unique, ju:ot as the market is. Although I am ::;till imprrn::sed by the building, I enter the restaurant where Celia's tour will start with elevenses; 8ma.ll snack;,; of variorn; kincl:o. After I climb the stair to the firnt-Hoor restaurant I feel as if I am no

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(a) Side-view (b) Detail

Figure 3:

Roast

restaurant.

longer in the market. The atmosphere is quiet and the view is magnificent; from the restaurant I see the tower of Southwark Cathedral rising above the market. After the elevenses, I feel like I have been introduced into a way of life that was hidden to me before. Luxurious snacks with the best ingredients were put before us as if there was no end to it. The elevenses were accompanied by freshly pressed organic juice of anything except orange and concluded by a tiny cup of high quality Illy-espresso. I completely agree that we could only eat these delicacies with silver tableware and crystal glasses. It is, as Dolphijn has argued, the food that creates here a notion of space (2004: 18), because it is the experience of food that gives meaning to the fact that I sit here in this silver building with these unfamiliar Americans (see also Holtzman 2006; Cardona 2004). In line with the elevenses, it was Proust who, when tasting a madeleine, 'explores the immanent, he experiences the immanent' (Dolphijn 2004: 13).

Since this is only the beginning of the tour, Celia takes me and the other guests to a few of her favourite traders at the market. We taste some fresh marsh samphire and hand dived scallops. 'From Boat to Borough: Come and meet the divers,' says a board which is placed outside the stand, making an explicit link between the scallops, through the divers, to the British coast (see also Cook 2006: 659; Lockie 2001).5 _{However, Cook and Crang argue, 'foods} 5_{0n another occasion,}_I_{saw a similarly poster saying 'THE GINGER PIG OFFERS FULL} TRACEA131LITY, Pork & Bacon from free range rare-breed Tamworth, Bershire and Goucester Old Spot pigs. Breeding, Feeding, Slaughterting, Butchering, Curing and Smoking, Market-ing,' informing me of the ways Ginger Pig gets to its sausages. Another poster, furthermore, stresses the fact that the shop has won an award for the best producer in 2005 by The Observer

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do not :::imply come from place:::, organically grown out of them., but abo make place::; a::: :::ymbolic constructs' (in Molz 2007: 88; see also Cwiertka 2005). It is therefore not ::;o much the scallops that attract people inside the Shellseekers' ::;tand, but Lhe divers who offer them. While frying a tasty looking scallop for each of Celia'::; gue:::t:::, the diver explains why it is important to dive the :::callop::: by hand and not mechanically, hereby presenting u::; with an admired utopia. Behind him, full colour pictures show how the bottom of the sea !ooh like before machine::; have gathered the scallop::; and afterwarcfa. Even if you are not a great fan of :::callops, you have to ethically like this shop. In this stall, the regional idiom of the food is explicitly ::;upplemented, as Appadnrai noted, by a cultural ::;uperior ethical idiom (Ramda::; 1994: 119). The scallop, in line with Agamben's argument, 'has ceased to be an innocent object' (quoted in Favero 2003: 564). The same is true for our next two stalls. The first offern all organic herb::; and :::pices, while the second sells pure wheat-grass shots, which ·equal a week's fruit and vegetables in vitamins. You would not be a good person if you do not like the::;e bitter tasting 'exotic' (Cook, Crang & Thorpe 2004) drink>;.

Thus far, Celia's tour, which take::; us through all the market's pathways, has presented a market which i::: totally different from any other idea I had about

markets. The food we were offered acted 'as a transportable symbol of place and of cultural identity and thus becomes a moveable 8ign of Otheme::;::;' (Molz 2007: 78). Borough Market is not a place to buy your cheap daily groceries, but a place which i:-; 'different' - it is a place where you practise ethical consumption (Dolphijn 2004). The money you spend on scallops does not only go into the pockets of the divers, but contribute::> to a cornervation of the bottom of the ::;ea and all life that exi:-;t::; there (see also figure 4). Wheat-gra:o:o :::hot:o not only or perhaps not at all - enrich the tradern, but increa:-;e the genera.I heetlth of the public. Even by joining Celia's gastro-tour you ::;upport the local poor by a contribution to a charity included in the price of the tour. You have to cooperate in this. This feeling is not only enforced by the fact that Celia, a trusted source when it come::; to good quality, ethical food and herself a vegetarian, takes u:-; here, but also by the camera's that are shooting cookery program:; to 'educate' the so-perceived ga:otronomicetlly backward Briti:::h. Celia'::; tour, thu:o, provides us with a 'moral geography' of the market (Jackson 2006)."

Together with my, mostly American, co-guests at Celia':o tour, I felt enlight-ened. How fortunate are we that such a market exists right here in the centre of London! At exactly hi::; moment, Celia had planned her break at Bedales, where

we were to taste a variety of high quality wines accompanied by the best food France ha:o to offer. Amy, a young woman working at Bedales and a specialist in wines, first explains how to ta:ote wine. We are already ::;o much surprbed about the market thus far, that we happily accept Amy':o advise to gargle the wine in our throat, making noises that we would never have done in a bar otherwi:oc.

The wine i::; of excellent quality and the pieces of cheese and sau:oagc do match perfectly -- at least, this is what we automatically believe after our pri--and offers butchery workshops: 'learn to bone pri--and role a lamb-shoulder.' Inside, locality is reproduced by many pictures of pigs and paintings of knifes and pans.

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Figure 4: Borough Cheese Company describes in detail the process from milking

the cow to selling the organically produced comte cheese.

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vate 'enlightenment' and entrance into the world of superior quality food. We continue our tour through the Green Market, where I realise that I have thus far always been unaware about the essence of tomatoes. A stall selling only toma-toes offers multiple kinds of the vegetable that is usually thought of as ordinary. Here, however, each tomato it; handled as a piece of gold: there a.re a.bout five to ten bright-red small tomatoes in a row, followed by another row of yellow, long-shaped tomatoes and another row of sun-dried tomatoes in oil. Defore we are offered to try this unique heavenly product, we a.re assured that the quality nrnst be excellent - the tomatoes go for £2,50 a vine. Moreover, the fact that Celia takes us here must indicate that these tomatoes are the best I will ever taste. After ta.sting, I feel delighted. The tomatoes a.re heavenly, tasting soft and spicy because of the oak-smoke, totally different from the ones I used to buy in the supermarket. How was it possible that I was 'lo ignorant all the time? I can hardly wait for the next tastings, which will be ultra-spicy chili-pepper from a friendly stall-holder who only sell:,; South-American chili-peppers and a delicate and sweet white balsamic vinegar from Apulia.. My concept of vinegar changes radically after ta.sting this delicious liquid, as does my concept of food and of markets in general. Indeed, what we consume in the market is much rnore than what we buy (Pradelle 2006: 136).

I realise that although this market expressee> itself as a. radical change to other markets, it depends at the same time on our idea of traditional markets. As De la Pradelle has shown in relation to a southern France market (2006: 111), the traders attract us with two competing representations, or 'styliza.tiorw' (Crang et a.I. 2003: 450), of nature. On the one hand, there a.re traders, like the toma.to-trader I just passed by, who present their products by showing how 'authentic' and 'true' they a.re. These a.re the traders that sell by the item. On the other hand, there a.re traders who reproduce a. small Garden of Eden, a heavenly place where excellent quality food is plenty. Here, food is sold by weight (see figure 5).

It is precisely these stereo-typical repreimntations of food, where the place the food refors to i8 abstracted (Belasco 2002: 9) and promoted (A clema. 2006: v i), that a.re easily understood by all - these are the representations that a.re 'more cultural.' In the market, as Ha.nnerz argues, the products a.re mostly nothing b11t meaning. 'What is increasingly produced,' he continues, quoting Scott Lash and John Urry, 'a.re not material objects, but. signs' (Ha.nnerz 1996: 24). Appa.durai says, next, that. luxury products like the ones sold in Borough Market a.re simply 'incarnated signs,' products which have only a c;ocia.l and rhetorical use (1986: :38). Neither thus, in contrast to what Trentmann argues, are modern consumers passive, abstract creatures who absorb the ever-expanding deluge of goods nor do they engage in a world of meaningless tastes (2001: 131). No matter if' you buy a tomato that is unique in taste and texture, a real col,lector's item, or one that comes from a place where quality is the rule and nature is willing to offer, you will buy a tomato that makes, by buying it, the market a place you want to go.

After ta.sting a piece of Pa.rmesa.n cheec:e from a e>ta.11 with only a fow huge wheels of cheese (see figure 6), I think I finally found the best. cheese of the world. Where Pa.rmesa.n cheese used to be a luxury-product. in London because

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(a) A selection of unique quality tomatoes (b) A never-ending heap of heavenly toma-at the Green Market. toes at Turnips.

Figure 5: Two competing ways of presenting tomatoes at the market.

of its exclusivity, it is now, in a globalising world of shrinking distances between producers and consumers, a luxury-product in the market because of its 'au-thenticity'. The fact that the trader in the market sells only one single product refers back to a time when not all the world's cheeses could be found in London -in other words, it -incorporates -in the idea of 'authenticity' - -in Ferrero's words, a 'staged authenticity' (2002: 194) - the myth of 'exclusivity' (Appadurai 1986: 44, 48). The authenticity is recreated in this cheese. In line with Favero's ar-gument on the

kurta,

the Parmesan in Borough Market has 'travelled in space and time, linking different places . . . and different epochs in a play of cultural essentialism' (Favero 2003: 564, see also Dabringer 2006).6

After the Green Market, and already full of fantastic food, we continued our tour inside, start-ing with a Scottish stall. After I tasted the or-ganic smoked salmon with oror-ganic dill-sauce, I felt a bit guilty and ashamed of myself because I al-ways used to buy the non-organic salmon. As Celia pointed out, the organic salmon is much paler in colour, because, in contrast to the non-organic salmon, it is not fed on colourants. Nowadays, people want their salmon pink or red, and a pale salmon is considered less quality. In our judging of the salmon in gastronomically accepted terms, we express not only our taste of fish, but also, as vari-ous authors have argued (Silverstein 2006; Jackson 2004; Cardona 2004), our relations to others. As

Figure 6: The Parmesan-trader at the Green Mar-ket.

Bourdieu expresses it: 'the fact remains that socially known and recognised dif-ferences only exist for a subject capable not only of perceiving difdif-ferences but of recognising them as significant, interesting, i.e., only for a subject endowed with the capacity and inclination to

make

the distinctions that are regarded as

6_In_{the same way, Prunty describes the emergence of 'urban farms' in Philidelphia (2007).}

Taking the borough market route: an experimental ethnography of the marketplace.