EATING ON THE MOVE: Metro stations as care infrastructure in the city of Santiago

This chapter analyzes the use and appropriations that occur of the public spaces in and around Santiago’s subway system for the purposes of feeding and eating in order to argue that these constitute parts of networks of care. Foodwork—which implies the planning, procuring, preparation, serving, and clean-up related to food—is a central form of gendered care work. By approaching the food practices of Santiago’s residents through the lens of care, it becomes possible to understand how urban infrastructures are inserted in the complex field of the daily lives of the city’s inhabitants, and the ways in which they do, and don’t, meet their needs. The chapter draws on mobile ethnographic fieldwork to analyze how the relationship between the spatial configuration of subway stations, informal food buying and selling practices, and informal work strategies is part of the complex phenomenon of eating on the move in Santiago, Chile.