Dr Jakob Klein
Overview
Department of Anthropology and Sociology
Lecturer in Social Anthropology
Centre of Chinese Studies
Member, Centre of Chinese Studies
SOAS Food Studies Centre
Deputy Chair, SOAS Food Studies Centre
- Name:
- Dr Jakob Klein
- Email address:
- jk2@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- 020 7898 4428
- Address:
- SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office No:
- 564
- Office Hours:
- Wednesdays 11:30-13:00
Teaching
Programmes Convened
Courses Taught
- Advanced Ethnographic Study
- Comparative Studies of Society and Culture
- Culture and Society of China
- Dissertation in Anthropology and Sociology
- Ethnography of a Selected Region - China
- Food, Body And Society
- The Anthropology of Food
PhD Students supervised
- Hannah Roberson, Food movements in the ‘Big Society’
- Katharina Graf, Domestic Cooking in Morocco: Skill, Knowledge Transmission and Social Change (working title)
- Willa Zhen, Knowledge Transmission in Cantonese Cooking Schools (working title)
Research
Since the late 1990s I have been carrying out research on urban South China, with a particular emphasis on the anthropology of food. Previous research concentrated on the city of Guangzhou (Canton), where I explored the transformation of regional cuisine and restaurant/teahouse culture under socialism and post-socialism. I am currently completing a project, begun in 2006, which examines the emergence of networks in and discourses on ‘ecological’ foods in Kunming, Yunnan province. The study focuses especially on activism and household food consumption, and charts Kunmingers’ various reactions to a rapidly changing food supply system. It sheds light on contemporary urban Chinese approaches to the countryside, locality, the environment, risk, health, development, and social differentiation, and contributes to wider, comparative debates concerning ‘ethical consumption’ and ‘alternative food networks’.Expertise
For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on +44(0)20 7898 4837 or email enterprise@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7898 4956/4135 or email comms@soas.ac.uk
Available for
- Radio
- Press
- Briefings
- Special Study Programmes
- Short Term Consultancy
- Long Term Consultancy
- TV
Regional Expertise
- East Asia
Country Expertise
- China
Languages
- Swedish
Publications
Edited Books
Latham, Kevin and Thompson , Stuart and Klein , Jakob, eds. (2006) Consuming China: approaches to cultural change in contemporary China. London; New York: Routledge.
Book Chapters
Klein , Jakob A and Pottier , Johan and West , Harry G (2012) 'New Directions in the Anthropology of Food.' In: Fardon , Richard and Harris, Olivia and Marchand, Trevor H J and Nuttall, Mark and Shore, Cris and Strang, Veronica and Wilson, Richard A, (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Anthropology. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 293-302.
Klein, Jacob (2009) 'Chinese meals: diversity and change.' In: Meiselman, Herbert L., (ed.), Meals in science and practice: interdisciplinary research and business applications. Cambridge: Woodhead, pp. 452-482.
Klein , Jakob (2008) '"For eating, it’s Guangzhou": regional culinary traditions and Chinese socialism.' In: West, H. and Raman, P., (eds.), Enduring Socialism: Explorations of Revolution and Transformation, Restoration and Continuation. Oxford; New York: Berghahn.
Klein, Jakob (2006) 'Changing Tastes in Guangzhou: Restaurant Writings in the Late 1990s.' In: Latham, K. and Thompson, S. and Klein, J., (eds.), Consuming China. Approaches to Cultural Change in Contemporary China. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 104-120.
Articles
Klein, Jakob (2009) 'Creating ethical food consumers? Promoting organic foods in urban Southwest China.' Social Anthropology, 17 (1). pp. 74-89.
Klein , Jakob (2008) 'Afterword: Comparing Vegetarianisms.' South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies, 31 (1). pp. 199-212.
Klein , Jakob (2007) 'Redefining Cantonese cuisine in post-Mao Guangzhou.' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 70 (3). pp. 511-537.
