TASTE

Taste usually occupies the bottom of the sensorial hierarchy, as the quintessentially hedonistic sense, too close to the animal, the elemental and the corporeal, and for this reason disciplined and moralised. At the same time, taste is indissolubly tied to knowledge. To taste is to discriminate, emit judgement, enter an unstable domain of synaesthetic normativity where the certainty of metaphysical categories begins to crumble. This second title in the ‘Law and the Senses’ series explores law using taste as a conceptual and ontological category able to unsettle legal certainties, and a promising tool whereby to investigate the materiality of law’s relation to the world. For what else is law’s reduction of the world into legal categories, if not law’s ingesting the world by tasting it, and emitting moral and legal judgements accordingly? Through various topics including coffee, wine, craft cider and Japanese knotweed, this volume explores the normativities that shape the way taste is felt and categorised, within and beyond subjective, phenomenological and human dimensions. The result is an original interdisciplinary volume – complete with seven speculative ‘recipes’ – dedicated to a rarely explored intersection, with contributions from artists, legal academics, philosophers, anthropologists and sociologists

The Future of Human-Food Interaction

There is an increasing interest in food within the HCI discipline, with many interactive prototypes emerging that augment, extend and challenge the various ways people engage with food, ranging from growing plants, cooking ingredients, serving dishes and eating together. Grounding theory is also emerging that in particular draws from embodied interactions, highlighting the need to consider not only instrumental, but also experiential factors specific to human-food interactions. Considering this, we are provided with an opportunity to extend human-food interactions through knowledge gained from designing novel systems emerging through technical advances. This workshop aims to explore the possibility of bringing practitioners, researchers and theorists together to discuss the future of human-food interaction with a particular highlight on the design of experiential aspects of human-food interactions beyond the instrumental. This workshop extends prior community building efforts in this area and hence explicitly invites submissions concerning the empirically-informed knowledge of how technologies can enrich eating experiences. In doing so, people will benefit not only from new technologies around food, but also incorporate the many rich benefits that are associated with eating, especially when eating with others

A Recipe for Shocking the Urban Body

This is not a recipe for heterosex, nor making love, nor a recipe for heteronorms to be consumed at a table set for two with neatly folded napkins. This is a recipe that does not include a vintage Beaujolais nor a pricey Champagne; there will be no smoked salmon (unless it is smoked too much) and no steak, unless it is of an animal you have not yet heard of. There will be no butternut squash, nor precisely laid out vegetables upon your plate. In fact, there may be no plate. It is unlikely that there will be courses of any kind, and items will be needed you consider disgusting (but they might grow on you) or that may be in short supply. Traversing offal, extraordinary almost rotten-tasting cloudy natural wines, bodily fluids, urban grime, streets, tube stations, smells, sounds, movements and urban bodies of all kinds. This is a recipe like no other, which tries to capture how the consumption of food and wine is the consumption of far more than what appears before us on the table, and far more than what takes place in our mouths. This recipe is a list, a journey, and a memory and record of the confluence of unexpected ingredients that can join human and nonhuman bodies in an unforgettable orgy of urban de-categorisation: the best fucking you ever tasted

In search for totemic foods: Exploring discursive foodscapes online in Finnish, English and French

This interdisciplinary research investigates how chilli and chocolate emerge as totemic foods in online foodie discourse. The corpus is compiled from Social Networking Services (blogs, community websites, recipe sharing sites, and conversation fora) in Finnish, English and French. The theoretical framework is construed with post-Bourdieusian taste and distinction studies on discourse, complemented by a feminist positioning. A netnographically inspired inquiry in an observer’s position enhances the methodology of critical discourse studies. The study introduces a theoretical concept: discursive foodscapes, contributing on two dimensions to extant theorising. It focuses the observation on multivocal online communities and extends foodscape analysis towards non-concrete consumption, on a discursive level. Moreover, the study suggests new practices for taste engineering, relevant in online consumption contexts. Three research questions draw on chilli and chocolate as totemic substances, interpreted in a framework of contemporary tribalism within the paradigmatic viewpoint of Consumer Culture Theory: emergence of chocolate and chilli as totemic foods; taste and distinction performance; and representations of gender and power. They are studied separately, although perceiving the triad as entwined. The discursive foodscape related to each research question reflects findings: it is described with the combination of discursive themes, frames and strategies identified in the empirical analysis. Findings reveal a more diversified vista on chocolate and chilli as discursive foci than extant research mostly claims: they are ascribed with a variety of totemic significations, shifting contextually from highly indulgent to environmentally concerned. Knowledge-intensive foodie discourse emerges as relatively gender-neutral. However, across embodied, experiential elements in consumption the discourse becomes more gender-flagged, and contextual changes are highly significant. This variation generates discursively interesting constellations where stylistic categories reflect areas of culinary and discursive competence. Cross-linguistic variation is detected with all research questions, introducing a pioneer-type endeavor in terms of discourse analysis of foodie sites online, across three language

A Sensory Education

A Sensory Education takes a close look at how sensory awareness is learned and taught in expert and everyday settings around the world. Anna Harris shows that our sensing is not innate or acquired, but in fact evolves through learning that is shaped by social and material relations. The chapters feature diverse sources of sensory education, including field manuals, mannequins, cookbooks and flavour charts. The examples range from medical training and forest bathing to culinary and perfumery classes. Offering a valuable guide to the uncanny and taken-for-granted ways in which adults are trained to improve their senses, this book will be of interest to disciplines including anthropology and sociology as well as food studies and sensory studies

Tapped: An Inside Perspective on the Craft Beer Movement

An ethnography of participants of the craft beer movement. This work investigates how craft beer is consumed, how it is made, and what it means to society

Accounting for taste:conversation, categorisation and certification in the sensory assessment of craft brewing

The recent rapid growth of “craft beer” has led to a search for definitions and categorisation of that sector with “beer style” used as one criterion. This thesis explores the origins of these style definitions and how they act as a technology of classification which affects how sensory judgments are formed and expressed in practice, and how judges are examined and certified. The investigation draws on actor-network theory and ethnomethodology to trace how taste descriptions are assembled and translated into test items in an online exam. The material orderings and classification practices which assemble competition judging are then explored ethnographically by following the trajectory of a beer through these situated actions. The magnification is increased through developing original methods utilising digital pens, and draws on principles from conversation analysis to explore the sequential and categorial aspects of judging talk and its co-ordination with writing and form-filling. Finally, auto-ethnographic and material-semiotic explorations are used to explore how a blind beer tasting exam is assembled, and the models of learning and assessment it enacts. The historical construction of the contemporary language of sensory assessment supports the construction of the style guides. Once assembled into an information infrastructure the style guide is extended to act in multiple different ways: its propositions are translated into testable facts with multiple choices, it functions as a technology of material ordering and coordination, as a regulatory technology placing limits on how taste judgements can and cannot be expressed or recorded, and as a re-enactment and materialisation of individual cognitivist models of assessment. Through exploring the ways a classification system is assembled, translated and made authoritative this thesis extends the conceptualisation of what is considered a technology in technology enhanced learning, and extends the dialogue between that disciplinary field and scholarship in science and technology studies

Wine in the circuit of culture : "authentic wines" as cultural objects in the 21st century

This report corresponds to a six-month internship, which took place from September 1st, 2019 to February 29th, 2020, in the marketing department of Saffer Wein GmbH in Munich, Germany. The aim of this report is to investigate how a well-established wine importer like Saffer Wein GmbH treats wine as a cultural product. Using Goode and Harrop’s definition of authentic wine, and the official OIV term terroir, this report discusses the immaterial elements of wine in the context of cultural marketing. Beginning with the contextualization of wine as a cultural product through Hall and du Gay’s circuit of culture, this research analyses the culture of wine through the circuit’s five moments of production, representation, consumption, regulation and identity, concentrating specifically on Italian wine as a cultural product in the German market. My internship involved developing a cultural marketing program that communicated the intangible cultural elements of Italian wine to German consumers, who have recently become interested in the cultural components of their products. This awareness is a relatively new phenomenon in Germany, and goes hand-in-hand with an increased awareness of sustainability, all of which is part of an evolution towards aesthetics and specialization within contemporary consumption. This report investigates the role of culture in the appreciation of wine, and how Saffer Wein GmbH integrates this phenomenon into their marketing strategy. So how can wine importers respond to these evolving expectations and demands? What responsibilities do importers have to both producers and customers, to preserve and support the heritage of the former, and to educate the latter? These questions will be explored in the case study of Bertoldi Prosecco. Ultimately, this report makes the case for cultural marketing as a form of cultural translation, responding to the needs of the market and the ethics of the consumer.Este relatório corresponde a um estágio de seis meses, realizado entre 1 de Setembro de 2019 e 29 de Fevereiro de 2020, no departamento de marketing de Saffer Wein GmbH, em Munique, na Alemanha. O objectivo do relatório foi investigar o modo como um conhecido importador de vinhos como Saffer Wein GmbH trata o vinho como um produto cultural. Usando a definição de vinho autêntico apresentada por Goode e Harrop, bem como o termo oficial terroir da OIV (The International Organisation of Vine and Wine), o relatório discute os elementos imateriais do vinho no contexto do marketing cultural. Começando com uma contextualização do vinho como produto, ou objecto, cultural, através do uso da ferramenta circuito da cultura desenvolvida por Stuart Hall e Paul du Gay, esta investigação analisa a cultura do vinho através dos cinco momentos do circuito – produção, representação, consumo, regulação e identidade – concentrando-se especificamente em vinhos italianos como produtos culturais no mercado alemão. O meu estágio incluiu o desenvolvimento de um programa de marketing cultural que comunicasse os elementos culturais intangíveis do vinho italiano aos consumidores alemães, que começaram, recentemente, a manifestar interesse pela componente cultural dos seus produtos. Este interesse é um fenómeno relativamente novo na Alemanha e acompanha o crescente interesse pela sustentabilidade, fazendo ambos parte de uma evolução em direção a um interesse pela estética e especialização no contexto do consumo contemporâneo. Este relatório investiga o papel da cultura na apreciação do vinho e como Saffer Wein GmbH integra esse fenómeno na sua estratégia de marketing. Como podem, então, os importadores de vinho dar resposta a estas expectativas e exigências? Que responsabilidades têm para com os produtores e consumidores, a fim de preservar e apoiar o património dos primeiros e educar os segundos? Estas questões serão exploradas através do estudo de caso do Bertoldi Prosecco. Em última instância, este relatório advoga o marketing cultural como uma forma de tradução cultural, dando resposta às necessidades do mercado e à ética do consumidor

Poutine, Mezcal And Hard Cider: The Making Of Culinary Identities In North America

Foodways, which in short refers to eating and drinking practices, are constitutive of personal and group identity. In this thesis, I explore the symbolic values of food and drink in group identification processes evolving across North America. Through the cases of poutine, mezcal, and hard cider, I investigate cultural identity formation, negotiation, and transformation; from everyday practices to global interactions. What I develop in this thesis is a rationale that can be actively used by members of a group, as well as by community development practitioners, governments, and industry stakeholders to bolster community capitals and agency through making, supporting or rejecting food and drink ownership claims. In the first article, titled Poutine Dynamics, I explore both the culinary and social status of poutine. First, I identify poutine as a new(er) and distinct way to consume food that is increasingly adopted and adapted, and I propose a working definition of poutine as a new dish classification label in its own. Then, by coupling poutine’s sociohistorical stigma and its growing Canadization (that is, the presentation, not the consumption per say, of poutine as a Canadian dish), I expose two related situations: the ongoing culinary appropriation of poutine and the threat of Quebecois cultural absorption by Canadians. In Poutine Dynamics, I problematize the notion of a “national cuisine” in the context of multinational and settler states. Although the focus is about cuisine, Poutine Dynamics provides elements of analysis regarding how the Canadian nationalist project is constructed and articulated today, in current celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Confederation in Canada. The second article of this thesis, titled Strategic Authenticity: The Case of Mezcal, draws upon the recent major update to the mezcal denomination of origin certification (DO) that was long-awaited and requested by “traditional mezcaleros.” This tour de force in the modification of the mezcal DO leads me to identify the notion of authenticity in food as a powerful rhetorical strategy in social negotiation between groups. Through the case of mezcal, I assert that the tasting experience is the most legitimate group identification path and authentication boundary (as opposed to political, ethnical or religious boundaries) in terms of foodways. The third article, titled The Identity Crisis of Hard Cider, looks at the ongoing cultural affirmation of hard cider from its European counterparts. So far, the research on hard cider in Vermont has looked at the low-level of cider-specific apple production in that state as a supply issue. Instead, I approach this problematic from a demand angle, specifically from the low demand for hard ciders made with cider-specific apples. In this study, I survey the Vermont hard cider industry stakeholders as to possible mechanisms in order to differentiate between hard cider styles, as well as strategies to boost the demand for hard ciders made with cider-specific apples. The implementation of a geographical indication (GI) label was of high interests among participating cider makers. In this study, I also suggest that the hard cider foodways found in Vermont are part of a broader emerging hard cider identity that is taste-based and which crosses political borders within the American Northeast