Local food consumers: Producers of urban-rural imaginaries?

The homogenising forces of globalisation have deterritorialised the agri-food geography of the countryside. Consumers’ yearning for ‘localness’ of food products and brands find in the ‘local’ food tie with ‘place’ a form of assurance, and place-based promotion of foods invokes a rural (vs. urban) imaginary (namely, a set of feelings and beliefs) in consumers. Given the inconsistency of marketing conceptualisations of food ‘localness’ – which vary across subjects, cultures, and contexts – the relationship between local food consumption and consumers’ urban vs. rural imaginary may help develop a more uniform understanding of food ‘localness’ in globalised countries. This research aims to contribute to the theoretical development of food ‘localness’ by exploring the conceptual distinction between urban and rural local food products and brands in the Italian domestic market. This study consists of 21 ‘interpretative phenomenological’ interviews with Italian consumers living in the Marche region. The findings show that food ‘localness’ is a hyperreal, and hybrid construct grounding itself in a value-laden rural (bucolic) vs. urban (modernist) dialectic depending on consumers’ upbringing environment. This study distinguishes between ‘local-rural’ and ‘local-urban’ food products and brands helping marketers enhance perceived ‘localness’.