The post-war economic changes and the food question in Portugal: consumption patterns, social tendencies and regional differences

Abstract

It is quite impossible to study the period of economic growth in Portugal from 1950 to 1973 without mentioning the social changes. However, the Portuguese literature has given less attention to the aspects of everyday life and, specifically, to the food question during the Estado Novo period than they deserve. It is our purpose, with this paper, to identify and characterise the new social paths of the everyday life in Portugal at the second post-war period by trying to answer two main questions: how the performance of the Portuguese economy affects the food industry and how the population perceived the changes, created alternatives or maintained certain practices in the different regions.