FAST FOOD GLOBALIZATION IN THE PROVINCIAL PHILIPPINES

Few contemporary societies remain beyond the global reach of today39s fast food industry In both profound and subtle ways this style of cuisine and the corporate brands that promote it have effectively transformed the appetites health profiles and consumer sensibilities of millions the world over To better understand the variegated impact of McDonald39s and other national and international quickservice eateries on local life within a nonwestern urban context Ty Matejowsky offers readers a highly engaging and granular account detailing the rise and popularity of these Americanstyle chains throughout the Philippines In Fast Food Globalization in the Provincial Philippines Matejowsky examines the rich diverse and decidedly syncretic food traditions of the Philippines one of the few global markets where industry giant McDonald39s lags behind in competition with an indigenous chain Drawing on over twenty years of ethnographic fieldwork in two provincial Philippine citiesDagupan City Pangasinan and San Fernando City La UnionMatejowsky has crafted one of the few anthropological accounts of fast food production and consumption within the socioeconomic milieu of a lessdeveloped country By turns critically engaged and highly reflexive he examines many of the historical political economic and sociocultural complexities that characterize the Philippines39 now thriving fast food scene Amid intersections of postcolonial resistance retail indigenization corporatized childhood experiences and rising globesity Matejowsky considers the myriad ways this seemingly ubiquitous dining format is reimagined by industry players and everyday Filipinos to create something that is both intimately familiar and entirely new