Food for Thought, Thought for Food: Consumption, Identity, and Ethnography

Abstract

Movements associated with lifestyle and consumption politics have gained increasing visibility in society and in sociological research, but scholars’ methodological insights for studying these issues have lagged behind. How might the lifestyles and consumption practices of researchers themselves shape data collection, and how might these movements affect researchers? The authors offer a collaborative, reflexive analysis of their experiences conducting fieldwork on three different consumption movements centered on food production. Building on feminist and symbolic interactionist methodological literature, they show how their own “consumption identities” affected their data collection, analyses, and written work. The authors also discuss how conducting research on consumption and lifestyle movements may also affect researchers’ own identities and practices. They conclude by discussing how their process of “collaborative reflexivity” brings new insight into feminist methodological concerns for reflexivity.

Eating Animals to Build Rapport: Conducting Research as Vegans or Vegetarians

“…Kerfoot thus conceptualized that his acceptance in this community was contingent upon his accepting what/who was offered as food, and that if he refused this, his learning would be constrained. Cherry, Ellis, and DeSoucey [33] write about how their consumptive identities (as a vegan researching animal rights activists, a near vegan researching cattle ranching, and a carnist researching politics of foie gras, respectively) also worked to shape what they could or could not learn from their participants. Their reflexive analysis reveals that access to their populations of interest entailed a process of negotiation in terms of their consumption practices and themselves, "…we needed to validate our identities by physically consuming certain items-or not-in front of our participants" (p. 236).…”

Organic intimacy: emotional practices at an organic store

“…Being both a researcher and a staff member at Yggdrasill illustrates the ethical dilemma of my ethnographic research (Cherry et al 2011;Jönsson 2012). I was there to gain information, as a researcher, but also to provide information, as a staff member.…”

The importance of food in vacation decision-making: Involvement, lifestyles and destination activity preferences of international Slow Food members

“…Furthermore, lifestyle is an expression of oneself and the accumulation of past experiences (Veal, 1993). Past studies also found that the consumption of food was influenced by each person's lifestyles, consumption practices and identities (Cherry et al, 2011).…”

“…Past studies have found that the consumption of food is influenced by each person's lifestyles, consumption practices and identities (Cherry, Ellis, & DeSoucey, 2011;Tellström et al, 2006). Food has extensive connotations; it not only fulfils our physiological needs but also provides intrinsic meanings connected to psychological, historical, social status, and symbolic aspects of our lives (Bell, 2000;Germann Molz, 2007;Kittler & Sucher, 2004).…”

“…The action of eating not only fulfils physiological aspect of an individual but also the psychological or intrinsic part of a human being (Cherry et al, 2011;Germann Molz, 2007). Slow Food members perceived that each person has the right to choose what to eat every day, which is a political action that it is linked directly to each person's basic values.…”