Competition, adaptation and mutation: Fresh market and supermarket conventions in Thailand

Abstract

The speed at which international supermarkets chains have integrated themselves into Thai diets and food practices is without prior historical precedent. This article uses ethnographic data from Chiang Mai, Thailand, to examine how values surrounding food and food cultures are being sustained, are adapting and are being transformed. It examines both supermarkets and fresh markets as places where the values unfold in different ways. In discussing the sometimes competing, intermingling and mutating values, a Conventions Theory approach is adopted. The theory facilitates a discussion of the monetary, social and cultural evaluations of Chiang Mai's food markets. In doing so it is argued that the conventions theoretical approach could usefully be extended from western settings to take account of non-western development trajectories and culture-economy interdependencies.