Michaela DeSoucey

Gastronationalism: Food Traditions and Authenticity Politics in the European Union

By developing the concept of “gastronationalism,” this article challenges conceptions of the homogenizing forces of globalism. I analyze (1) the ways in which food production, distribution, and consumption can demarcate and sustain the emotive power of national attachment and (2) how nationalist sentiments, in turn, can shape the production and marketing of food. The multi-methodological analyses reveal how the construct of gastronationalism can help us better understand pan-national tensions in symbolic boundary politics—politics that protect certain foods and industries as representative of national cultural traditions. I first analyze the macro-level dimensions of market protections by examining the European Union’s program for origin-designation labels that delineates particular foods as nationally owned. The micro-level, empirical case—the politics surrounding foie gras in France—demonstrates how gastronationalism functions as a protectionist mechanism within lived experience. Foie gras is an especially relevant case because other parties within the pan-national system consider it morally objectionable. Contemporary food politics, beyond the insights it affords into symbolic boundary politics, speaks to several arenas of sociological interest, including markets, identity politics, authenticity and culture, and the complexities of globalization.By developing the concept of “gastronationalism,” this article challenges conceptions of the homogenizing forces of globalism. I analyze (1) the ways in which food production, distribution, and con...

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

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.

Technique and Technology in the Kitchen: Comparing Resistance to Municipal Trans

This chapter addresses how small businesses resist city regulations by using material things, by making craft knowledge claims about material things, and by letting material things organize their political activity. Chefs successfully resisted a foie gras ban in Chicago, where political resistance shaped the production and use of material things. Bakers successfully resisted a trans fat ban in Philadelphia, where material properties of things structured political resistance. We bring together analytic tools from the sociology of culture and science and technology studies to demonstrate how materiality can be both an instigator and an instrument of legal and political resistance.

At The Chef’s Table: Culinary Creativity in Elite Restaurants

participation as a progressive force and as a contributing factor to inequality. Francesca Polletta’s chapter on the relationship between deliberation and activism is a stand-out in this regard. And the chapters by Isaac William Martin and by Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Ernesto Ganuza are noteworthy for how they change the focus to an explanation of the social forces that produce the historical trajectories of participatory practices. In so doing they produce satisfying and convincing studies of their respective cases of deliberative assemblies in California and the diffusion of Brazil’s participatory budgeting. As I read the book, I could not help but connect the descriptions of ubiquitous participation to broader cultural beliefs about fairness—that we are all equal and we all have a voice and all our opinions are valid and matter. It seems to me that the increase in participatory governance opportunities both reflects and reinforces an increase in the salience of these cultural beliefs. While participation in governance is a deeply held and long-standing cultural practice, it is the extension in when, how, and who participates that is new. Despite this contemporary trope about participation, we can see in these chapters that the hopes for participatory potential are often falling short. This book is valuable not only for describing this problem, but for empirically and analytically specifying what happens along the way and why there is a disjuncture between aspirations and reality. I very much appreciated that the book roots its argument in empirical research, rather than leaving claims about participation at the level of political theory. I also appreciate the excellent job the final chapter does to identify main themes across the chapters. The book is incredibly timely and deserves attention for its quality of scholarship and for its subject matter. It is an example of how research can both be scholarly and have uses for actors outside of academia. It would make an excellent book for a graduate seminar, although I think it is probably too advanced for most undergraduates. Sociologists in political sociology and beyond will find the book important and useful for enriching their conceptual vocabulary for the study of inequality.