Exploring the transformative potential of urban food

Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research reporting on the urban food practices (UFPs) in support of sustainability is increasing, the link towards transformative potential is lacking. This is because research on urban food is often place-based and contextual. This limits the applicability of insights to large-scale sustainability transformations. This paper describes UFPs that aim to contribute to transformative change. We present signposts for potential change based on the types of intended transformative changes as described in the reviewed literature based on the processes and outcomes of the urban food policies and programmes. Secondly, we classify diverse UFPs to elevate them beyond their local, place-based contexts. We find that UFPs carry a lot of potential to facilitate sustainability transformations. Based on that analysis, we provide insights on how urban food research can further contribute to harnessing the transformative potential of UFPs for actionable purposes.

Narrative Imagination: Dismantling Old Age Through The Literary Foodscape In Lore Segal’s “The Arbus Factor”

Being able to take another person's perspective and understanding the Other is a crucial element of reading, understanding, and processing literature. Especially in the context of old age, many literary texts play into the culturally constructed (cf. Gullette 2004) and biased understanding of old age as decline narrative, rather than reading an old person's story as a narrative of possibility. In her short story "The Arbus Factor" which was first published in The New Yorker in 2007, Lore Segal offers a different perspective on aging. Through creating a space, coming into existence through foodways and food practices, which in my dissertation I will refer to as 'literary foodscape,' she offers a setting and backdrop for the characters to construct a discourse of possibility, creation, and new opportunities at a later stage in life. Segal wittily dismantles age-related stereotypes and opens up a discourse that goes beyond an easy categorization. This paper is going to analyze the ways in which a literary text, through the 'literary foodscape' is able to rewrite a culturally engrained perspective, and offers a different and more accurate understanding of what it means to be old. Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. Aged By Culture. The University of Chicago Press. 2004.

A Socially-Based Redesign of Sustainable Food Practices: Community Supported Agriculture in Italy

Several grassroots initiatives in the last two decades have shown the need for different food practices that should be locally based and founded on ethical goals of social and environmental justice. Among the many “alternative food networks”, the Community Supported Agriculture model is particularly significant and interesting. By redefining meanings and social norms around food practices, this model actualizes significant processes of food re-socialization and re-territorialization. Focusing on Italy, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of the potential of this model. It does so through two investigations carried out in 2019 and 2020, aimed at analyzing, respectively, structural and organizational aspects of CSAs and the features of resilience shown by these initiatives during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. On the whole, the two surveys give us the image of a radically innovative experience, potentially capable of deeply redefining production and consumption practices, being rooted in socially-shared knowledge, motivations, willingness, commitment and sense of community. In addition to being characterized by a determination to pursue sustainability and equity goals, the model shows a remarkable character of resilience thanks to the original arrangements that the common value basis and the strong sense of interdependence and solidarity of its members can provide.

NIETZSCHE’S SELF-IMAGE-FORMING AND ITS REPRESENTATION IN THE POSTMILLENNIAL MEDIA

Рассматривается теоретическая проблема человеческого образа и механизмов его формирования, которая является чрезвычайно актуальной для современной визуальной семиотики из-за глобальных процессов визуализации, вызванных повышением влияния СМИ и сопутствующих интернет-технологий. Визуальные аспекты функционирования пищи как культурного феномена в современной коммуникативной среде анализируются в междисциплинарной перспективе философии и культурных исследований. Авторы рассматривают работу Фридриха Ницше «Ecce Homo» в качестве одного из важнейших источников для понимания процессов само-образования человека в философских и культурных исследованиях, показывая, что этот текст, который объясняет культурную и антропологическую практику формирования человеческого образа, может быть очень актуальным для визуальной антропологии в XXI веке. В Ecce Homo немецкий мыслитель продолжает и развивает традиции античной «заботы о себе» (epimeleia), подчеркивая необходимость в ответственном, сознательном и индивидуальном отношении человека к формированию своего образа в повседневной жизни. Ницше демонстрирует ключевую важность само-образования, особенно с медицинской или даже физиологической точки зрения, подробно останавливаясь на самоформировании посредством сознательного отношения к еде, среде обитания, выбору для себя оптимального климата и способов отдыха. Все эти компоненты, особенно еда, являются центральными механизмами для формирования визуального образа человека в современных СМИ, которые фокусируют внимание не на критической самооценке, а на агрессивно утверждаемом определенном образе. В статье утверждается, что подход Ницше находится в рамках повседневной практики образа жизни, и именно еда, место обитания, климат и режимы отдыха доминируют для само-образования человека XXI века, формируя установки современного постмиллинеального (postmillennial) индивида в его стремлении к почти неограниченному потреблению. Авторы также обсуждают роль и значение визуальных образов продуктов питания в презентации человеческой идентичности и репрезентации культурных реалий постмиллениальной эпохи в функционировании современных СМИ. The paper is devoted to the consideration of the theoretical problem of the human image and the mechanisms of its formation, a topic which is of considerable relevance in present-day visual semiotics due to the totalizing visualization processes brought about through the increasing power of media and internet technologies. The visual aspects of the functioning of food as a cultural element in the postmillennial communicative environment are analyzed through the interdisciplinary perspective of philosophy and cultural studies. The authors identify Friedrich Nietzsche’s work Ecce Homo as one of the most important sources for understanding the processes of self-image-forming in philosophical and cultural studies, and they show that it is a text which explains cultural and anthropological practices that can be applied in 21st century visual anthropology. In Ecce Homo, the German thinker reintroduces the continuation and development of the traditions of ancient “self-care” (epimeleia), emphasizing the need for the responsible, conscious and individual relationship of a human being to his or her integral image as it emerges in everyday life. Nietzsche demonstrates the key importance of self-image-forming from a primarily medical or even physiological point of view, focusing in detail on the formation of the self through the conscious and authentic use of food practices, living environment, climate, and modes of relaxation. All of these components, especially that of food, are central mechanisms in the formation of the visual image of individuals in contemporary media, focusing not on a critical self-evaluation but instead on an aggressively approved image. The paper argues that it is within Friedrich Nietzsche’s everyday practices of lifestyle that we can identify how food, living environment, climate, and modes of relaxation dominate the 21st century self-image-forming of hypermodern postmillennial individuals in their quest for almost unlimited consumption and hypermediation. The authors also discuss the roles of visual food practices in the presentation of human identity and the representation of cultural realities of the postmillennial era in the functioning of hypermodern media.

Children as co-researchers and confessional research tales: Researcher positionality and the (dis)comforts of research

In a study on children, families and food messages in Victoria, Australia, we utilised a multi-methods approach that included visual data produced by primary-school aged children. Working with 50 families, we provided each child investigator with an iPad for 3–4 days and invited them to photograph family food events important to them. The analysis of visual data alongside child and family interviews revealed the diverse meaning-making practices children draw on to understand food practices at home and school. These research practices aspired to locate the researchers and children as co-creators. In this paper, we reflect on the challenges and (dis)comfort we faced as researchers as the implications of co-creation emerged and we engaged with children’s voices, photos and families inside their homes. The multi-methods approach supported a comprehensive and rich engagement with commensality and pleasure in food practices at home for children, but illuminated the complex emotional and intellectual terrain of such research practices.

Jewish Food in the Diaspora

This chapter uses foodways as a lens into the tension between Jewishness as an ethnicity and Judaism as a religion. While kashrut links Jews across the globe and may work to prevent assimilation, regional and ethnic food practices distinguish Jewish communities from one another and highlight Jewish integration into non-Jewish societies. Most obviously, Ashkenazi foodways are quite different from those of Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jews. This chapter argues that although there is no single Jewish cuisine, kashrut and holiday observance produce a structure through which foods are marked as Jewish in specific contexts. Foodways, therefore, call Jewishness into being while representing the diversity of the Jewish people.

L’expérience de l’hybride. Cultures céréalières et croisements spirituels

Starting from a historical reflection on the concept of hybridization, and in particular on its circulation between natural and social sciences, this contribution attempts to identify some of the processes by which cereal rituals are reformulated when the relevance of associated representations and practices is eroded. Among other examples, it mobilizes the case of millet rituals in Taiwan, modified by the introduction of rice cultivation and then by Christianization. The last section revisits the concepts and approaches used in the field so as to better balance theoretical rigor and imagination in the study of the transformations that continue to affect the meaning given to cultivation and food practices.

Improving Health Through the Application of Ergonomics to Food Practices

Food and nutrition are important to ensuring health, and practices related to food (including obtaining, preparing, consuming, sharing and cleaning up food) involve effortful activity - work. Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) efforts that leverage expertise in across HF/E domains (i.e., physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics) can provide a holistic approach to supporting human wellbeing and performance in these food practices. For example, ergonomists can attend to the physical environment and tools, the mental processes and/or overall sociotechnical systems involved in food practice all to facilitate food practices that increase the health and wellbeing of humans across diverse needs, abilities and limitations. This panel will introduce the ergonomics of food, highlighting ongoing work as well as opportunities for further work impact.

Dynamic Restaurants Quality Mapping Using Online User Reviews

Millions of users post comments to TripAdvisor daily, together with a numeric evaluation of their experience using a rating scale of between 1 and 5 stars. At the same time, inspectors dispatched by national and local authorities visit restaurant premises regularly to audit hygiene standards, safe food practices, and overall cleanliness. The purpose of our study is to analyze the use of online-generated reviews (OGRs) as a tool to complement official restaurant inspection procedures. Our case study-based approach, with the help of a Python-based scraping library, consists of collecting OGR data from TripAdvisor and comparing them to extant restaurants’ health inspection reports. Our findings reveal that a correlation does exist between OGRs and national health system scorings. In other words, OGRs were found to provide valid indicators of restaurant quality based on inspection ratings and can thus contribute to the prevention of foodborne illness among citizens in real time. The originality of the paper resides in the use of big data and social network data as a an easily accessible, zero-cost, and complementary tool in disease prevention systems. Incorporated in restaurant management dashboards, it will aid in determining what action plans are necessary to improve quality and customer experience on the premises.