Urban food environments and cultural adequacy: the (dis)assemblage of urban halal food environments in Muslim minority contexts

Abstract

Cultural adequacy has been largely neglected in urban food environment research. In times of urban multiculturalism, this is an obvious shortcoming. To address questions of cultural adequacy, urban food environment research needs to broaden its theoretical scope. The conventional approach to food environments as constituted through the presence or absence of specific foods in particular neighborhoods is especially insufficient. This argument is illustrated by empirical case studies examining halal food environments in Brasília (Brazil) and Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Drawing on assemblage thinking, we show that urban halal food environments in Muslim minority contexts are not determined by the mere presence or absence of halal foods but depend on how halal is understood. Furthermore, these environments are outcomes of complex assembling and dis/reassembling practices, including the crucial role of the invisibilization of halal foods. Invisibilization, in turn, is driven by market logics, entrepreneurial fear of cultural prejudices, and food regulations that disregard Muslims’ needs. Invisibilization is therefore likely to disassemble halal food environments in numerous other Muslim minority contexts. Findings imply that assemblage thinking helps unpack the complex societal relations that bring about culturally (in)adequate food environments, so food environment research would benefit from taking it on board.