Andrew Deener is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include urban development, neighborhood change, infrastructure, culture, and consumption. He is the author of Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles (2012), a historical and ethnographic study of conflict and change in five adjacent neighborhoods. He is currently completing a book about the transforming relationship between urban infrastructure, market development, and the food system.

Abstract:
Market Distinction in the Age of Excess: the Transformation of Infrastructure and the Food System

Infrastructure is at the center of the relationship between urban development, market creation, and the food system. Today’s food system is built upon complex social, technical, and economic interdependencies aiming toward ever-improving efficiencies. These interdependencies enable thousands of supermarkets across the U.S. to regularly restock tens of thousands of different products. This talk focuses on the connection between three changes: the redevelopment of the urban center after decades of decline; the rise of an infrastructural system of managing product diversity; and local organizational adaptations to infrastructural change through market differentiation. It draws on the case of Philadelphia to explore these issues.