Wynne Wright

The “All-American Meal”: Constructing Confidence in the Case of BSE

Using content analysis of newspaper coverage of the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States, we analyze the medias portrayal of the “BSE crisis,” from a social constructionist perspective. We identify the salient claims-makers in the dialogue over food safety as it pertains to the discovery of BSE and we examine the content of their claims to reveal their core messages. We find that public definitions and responses to the disease are influenced by claims-makers and claims-making activities. Some actors construct claims of confidence to deny the severity of the disease, while others construct and disseminate claims of risk in the beef commodity chain, while still others diffuse claims of skepticism and uncertainty. These findings offer support for understanding claims-making as shaped by contextual forces. Claims are not made in a vacuum but are given meaning based upon biophysical and socio-cultural contexts.

Food System Makers: Motivational Frames for Catalyzing Agri-Food Development through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

Multi-stakeholder partnerships are indispensable in the tool kit of community economic developers. In this paper, we examine the role of multi-stakeholder collaboration as a tool for renewing agriculture by using evidence from the Food System Economic Partnership (FSEP) in Michigan. FSEP represents a unique partnership of diverse - and in many cases, historically antagonistic - stakeholders from local government and universities, agri-business, and civil society. We present individual motivations of actors involved in this multi-stakeholder collaboration and their aspirations for agriculture as well as the collaborative experience. Using interview data from the partnerships leadership team, we examine the ways in which stakeholders frame their support for and involvement in food system collaboration. We identify two frames that explain motivation for participation in FSEP: agrarian fundamentalism and civic agriculture. These frames provide a look at how meaning is constructed around food system collaboration and informs future opportunities for sustainable community and economic development through cooperation. We conclude by identifying future directions for improvement of FSEP.

Wickedness, reflexivity, and dialogue: toward a multivalent bioenergy.

Bioenergy development is intensifying and is often accompanied by contentious social issues. This article provides a reflexive account of scholarship intended to advance citizen engagement around bioenergy through the practice of deliberative dialogue. Using a case from our work in Michigan, USA, we conceptualize bioenergy as a wicked problem – one that is ill-structured, socially complex, tentative, and eschews a definitive way forward that avoids clear outcomes. Problems are made ‘tame’, however, when complexity, diversity, and indeterminancy are obscured. Simultaneously holding in tension the diversity of meanings and values held by actors can reduce the likelihood of taming wicked problems, which is central to a democratic science. Thus, we argue for a multivalent approach to bioenergy. Deliberative dialogue is one technique that can engage citizens and achieve multivalency, yet, it, like any method, requires rigorous reflexivity. This reflexive exercise demonstrates how the normative biases of researchers can obscure or stifle multivalency.

Constructing Culinary Knowledge: Reading Rural Community Cookbooks

Abstract The late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a period rife with social change for both the domains of food production and consumption, with significant consequences for how we know food today. Yet the ways in which culinary knowledge became standardized beyond cooking schools and commercial cookbooks remains largely undisclosed, particularly in rural households. Much of the existing cookbook literature relies on cookbooks that originate from urban locations. To explore how knowledge about food at the household and community level changed during this time, this article examines rural community cookbooks published in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan between 1893 and 1956. The findings suggest that contributors embraced the changing food landscape, as reflected in their enthusiastic adoption of processed products, but their culinary knowledge may have differed from that of their urban counterparts due to a lack of access to markets or affordable ingredients combined with continued reliance on local food environments.

Gendered Considerations for Safety in Conservation Fieldwork

Abstract Scholars conducting research on either the social or biological dimensions of conservation practice may confront harassment, violence, and sexual assault. While guidelines for researcher safety usually cover the obvious perils encountered while conducting research in nature and with wild animals, less attention has been focused on the dangers associated with encountering and confronting humans. The aim of review boards for both human and animal subjects is to protect research participants. But who protects the researcher? This paper extends these calls to conservation researchers, initiating an open discussion on fieldwork safety, particularly the role of gender and power dynamics within the conservation field. We offer two themes for discussion: institutional responsibility and professional community responsibility. Our aim is to encourage dialogue regarding codes of practice for fieldwork safety at multiple institutional levels that acknowledge and provide support for the varying forms of harassment researchers face during fieldwork.

Representing Rurality: Cider Mills and Agritourism

This chapter examines how apple cider mills represent rurality and agriculture within the context of farm tourism. We draw upon qualitative data analysis of cider mills in Michigan. Some of these mills specialize in producing a more traditional raw cider product, while others have transformed their business model by incorporating fermented and/or distilled specialty products. In this chapter, we show how cider mill operators choreograph, stage, and perform representations of rurality that accentuate and enact the rural idyll. This is accomplished via cider mill names, marketing, architecture, staging, and consumption. We consider how such representations are disconnected from the modern complexities of rural life and as such present challenges addressing rural social problems and advancing producer/consumer relations.