From "cuines del Món" Gastronomic BiblioLab to "cuinem Santa Coloma": Cooking cultures and social cohesion at Fondo Public Library (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona)

Abstract

This communication presents a library service carried out at the Library of Fondo, Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Cuines del Món, a gastronomic BiblioLab, is part of the BiblioLab programme of the MLN at Barcelona province (Catalonia). Cuines del Món starts from an analysis of the surrounding area of the library, a highly intercultural one, and with some associated problems like a high poverty index. Cuines del Món is about gastronomy and cooking but, above all, is about community building, interculturality in view. The aim is to offer a space, a completely equipped kitchen, and related cultural activities, which provide a positive interaction working on common interests producing active and collaborative relationships between people and groups which normally would not establish contact, establishing mechanisms or resources to achieve a culturally diverse participation in its activities, by recognising diversity, promoting the knowledge and the visibility of cultural diversity, and implementing measures to ensure equity, egalitarian access to information and culture, rights, opportunities to people issued from diverse cultural and social origins and avoiding discrimination. All this with an active involvement of citizens.