The Making of the Consumer? Risk and Consumption in Europeanized Lithuania

Abstract

This article explores how larger geo-political changes are mirrored in the consumption habits in both rural and urban Lithuania. While the dominating European Union discourse emphasizes health, safety, and hygiene in food production, a counter-discourse has emerged where “authenticity” and “tradition” are embraced in the re-evocation of Lithuanian farm products. Based on ethnographic material, I suggest that the coexisting ambivalent and often contradicting feelings toward the West in present-day Lithuania have resulted in both a desire for and refusal of western products, as well as in a revival of the local cuisine.