Jukka Gronow

Nordic Meals: Methodological Notes on a Comparative Survey☆

This article discusses some methodological aspects of the project Eating and Modern Everyday Life. A Comparative Survey of Nordic Countries. Data were collected in April 1997 with computer assisted telephone interviews in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Questionnaires included a record of the informants eating on the day before the interview, attitudes related to current food discourses, socio-demographic information and a few open-ended questions. The emphasis was on social and cultural aspects of eating. One aim of this study is to investigate whether regular meals are substituted by irregular eating patterns. In order to avoid any predefined meal concepts the questionnaire therefore focused on eating events. The reconstruction of data is based on a model called the eating system. The model has three dimensions: the eating pattern (the rhythm and the number of eating events, the alternations of hot and cold eating events), the meal format (the composition of the main course, the sequence of the whole meal) and the social organization of eating (where and with whom people are eating, who did the cooking). Some preliminary results are presented suggesting that the questionnaire and the analytical model suit the purpose of studying modernization through the field of food.

Destructuration or continuity? The daily rhythm of eating in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1997 and 2012.

There is a widely shared belief that contemporary eating culture is undergoing a process of destructuration in which collective norms guiding temporal, social, and spatial aspects of eating as well as cuisine will decline or disappear. From another theoretical perspective one could argue that shared and regular patterns are quite resistant to change because they are functionally necessary for the organization and maintenance of social actions in everyday life. Using questionnaire data from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden from the years 1997 and 2012 we investigate whether culturally shared timing of eating rhythms has disappeared or declined. At the population-wide level, we find clear national peaks (occurring around breakfast, lunch, and to a lesser extent dinner) during which a great number, or even the majority, of people eat. These basic rhythms of eating are nationally specific and clearly identifiable in 1997 and 2012, and only small changes were found to have occurred over the period studied. Subsequent examination of within-country differences in daily eating rhythms identified a specific sub-population with very similar features in all countries. The sub-population deviates temporally from the collective peaks of eating, and in it conventional meal types such as breakfast and lunch are skipped to a higher extent, giving what we call an unsynchronized eating pattern. Interestingly, the pattern has become more common in all countries. While the growth of this sub-population may be a sign of a coming destructuration of meal culture, further analysis suggests this is not the case. Thus, we find clear socio-structural explanations for unsynchronized eating. It is related to the social coordination of work, and unsynchronized eating tends to be abandoned over the life course: with the establishment of a family, and old age, people tend to synchronize their eating habits with collective activities in society. Coupling this with the relatively modest growth of the unsynchronized pattern, and bearing in mind that it is a minority phenomenon, encompassing approximately one quarter of the population in 2012, we argue that an all-encompassing temporal destructuration will not develop. Additional analysis shows that the idea of a simultaneous rupture of eating culture on several dimensions (temporal, social, spatial, manners, cuisine) is doubtful. Thus, although, to a higher extent, individuals with an unsynchronized eating rhythm lack manners and eat more unhealthily, they do not display a higher degree of destructuration in the social and spatial dimensions of eating. Indeed, unsynchronized eating leads to fewer daily eating events, which contradicts the grazing theory altogether.

Taste and Fashion: The Social Function of Fashion and Style

In the classical European humanistic tradition, fashion was alwavs thought to be anti thetical to good taste. A person blindly following the whims of fashion was without style, whereas a man of style - or a gentleman - used his own power of judgement Immanuel Kant shared this conception with many of his contemporaries. It is well known that Georg Simmels idea of a formal sociology was influenced by his reading of Kants aesthetic writings. Even Simmels famous essay on fashion can best be understood as a somewhat ironic commentary on Kants idea of a semus communis: the community of fashion is the real community of universal taste To Simmel, fashion is a societal formation always combining two opposite forces It is a socially acceptable and safe way to distinguish oneself from others and, at the same time, it satisfies the individuals need for social adaptation and imitation Furthermure, the charm of novelty offered by fashion is a purely aesthetic pleasure. Fashion helps to solve - at least provisionally - the central problem of the philosophy of life, also expressed in the antinomy of taste as formulated by Kant. It teaches the modern man how a person can be a homogeneous part of a social mass without losing his individuality, or how he can both stick to his own private taste and expect others - who recognizably also have a taste ot their own - to share it Simmels suggestion of the stylized life-style further develops the same idea. In modern society, both style and fashion are functional equivalents to good taste.

The Element of Irrationality: Max Weber's Diagnosis of Modern Culture

Max Webers diagnosis of modern culture as presented for example in Science as Vocation includes the idea of differentiation between the spheres of science, art, and law and ethics But Weber also claims that all genuine values have gone from public life The parallel processes of rationalization and intellectualization have resulted in a loss of individual freedom and meaning This diagnosis does not simply follow from his over-narrow concept of rationality, as claimed by Habermas To Weber rationalization is not identical with the increase of instrumental rationality Rather, it is the formal and abstract, or quantifying nature of the modern type of rationality which is totally alien to all value considerations In Webers opinion there is thus an unavoidable element of irrationally inherent in the very process of rationalization Weber obviously also wanted to emphasize the paradoxical nature of legal authority and formal bureaucracy The legitimacy of the modern type of domination does not rest on any shared norms or values, but is by nature exclusively procedural and formal An analysis of Webers views about modernity thus reveals a highly conscious critique of the Project of Enlightenment

Changes in the social context and conduct of eating in four Nordic countries between 1997 and 2012

How have eating patterns changed in modern life? In public and academic debate concern has been expressed that the social function of eating may be challenged by de-structuration and the dissolution of traditions. We analyzed changes in the social context and conduct of eating in four Nordic countries over the period 1997-2012. We focused on three interlinked processes often claimed to be distinctive of modern eating: delocalization of eating from private households to commercial settings, individualization in the form of more eating alone, and informalization, implying more casual codes of conduct. We based the analysis on data from two surveys conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1997 and 2012. The surveys reported in detail one day of eating in representative samples of adult populations in the four countries (Nxa0=xa04823 and Nxa0=xa08242). We compared data regarding where, with whom, and for how long people ate, and whether parallel activities took place while eating. While Nordic peoples primary location for eating remained the home and the workplace, the practices of eating in haste, and while watching television increased and using tablets, computers and smartphones while eating was frequent in 2012. Propensity to eat alone increased slightly in Denmark and Norway, and decreased slightly in Sweden. While such practices vary with socio-economic background, regression analysis showed several changes were common across the Nordic populations. However, the new practice of using tablets, computers, and smartphones while eating was strongly associated with young age. Further, each of the practices appeared to be related to different types of meal. We conclude that while the changes in the social organization of eating were not dramatic, signs of individualization and informalization could be detected.

Polarizing Appetites?: Stability and Change in Culinary Tastes in Finland, 1995–2007

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of trends in culinary taste in Finland since the mid-1990s, a period characterized by rapid socio-cultural change, including changes in the area of food and drink. What culinary taste patterns can be identified among food and drink preferences in Finland? Are these patterns differentiated by socio-demographic characteristics? Have the shapes of culinary taste patterns and the way they are socially structured changed in recent years? These questions are analyzed using data from two nationally representative surveys collected in 1995 and 2007. The results show that the basic structure behind Finnish culinary taste revolves around the distinction between “modern” light/ethnic eating and “traditional” (often national) heavy/meat eating. Both patterns have clearly differentiated social profiles in terms of gender, age, education and geographical region. Somewhat unexpectedly, the main results show a striking stability over time. However, a more pronounced change could be detected in table beverage preferences than in foods.

Stability and Change in the Style and Standards of European Newspapers' Arts Reviews, 1960–2010

Reviews of cultural products are central elements in creating, legitimizing and disseminating cultural tastes and hierarchies. In this empirical study, we examine the changes that have taken place in European newspaper reviews during the last 50 years (1960–2010). Our sample consists of 205 highbrow arts reviews found in Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), Le Monde (France), ABC/El País (Spain), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) and The Guardian (UK). We analyse our sample using the framework of Shrum and observe possible changes in descriptive, entertainment, instructive, analytical and evaluative schemes of the reviews. Unlike one might expect in light of previous scholarly findings on the popularizing content of cultural journalism, the changes in European highbrow arts reviews between 1960 and 2010 are not drastic. If anything, the evaluation becomes more analytical and subtle, emphasizing the institutional role of highbrow arts reviews and the print newspaper as a traditional, rather conservative media.

Book Reviews : Richard Swedberg: Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998

Richard Swedberg’s study of Max Weber’s economic sociology is a remarkable work. To my knowledge, it is the first attempt to analyse the whole of Weber’s oeuvre systematically from the point of view of economic sociology. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society, Weber’s posthumous work) selfevidently plays a central role in Swedberg’s analysis. One of the merits of his study is that it can be used as a reliable guidebook in the thick

Book Reviews : Adam B. Seligman: The Problem of Trust: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997

very concept is often used vaguely in these discussions and analyses, almost as a synonym for social solidarity. Following Niklas Luhmann’s suggestion, Seligman makes a distinction between trust and confidence. Trust is always personal; we trust in persons. Confidence is institutional or systemic; we can have confidence in social institutions or systems. As long as we have confidence in the proper workings of a social institution as a normative