Why Should We Care? Two Experiences in the Politics of Food and Food Research

Bachórz, Agata; Parasecoli, Fabio

doi:0137-4079

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Why Should We Care? Two Experiences in the Politics of Food and Food Research Bachórz, AgataParasecoli, Fabio

Object structure

Why Should We Care? Two Experiences in the Politics of Food and Food Research

Ethnologia Polona 41 (2020)

Bachórz, Agata ; Parasecoli, Fabio

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences

food studies ; food politics ; positionality ; academic power relations ; gastronomy field ; public engagement

The aim of this article is to analyse the political aspects of food and their significance as an object of study. The first author of the article has studied Polish society as an insider, while the other author had previously conducted research in other countries, before three years ago starting to explore Poland and Polish gastronomy, and thus finding himself in the role of outsider. The two scholars have recently been working together. The power relations between the societies and the academic worlds from which they come turned out to be crucial to the research dynamics and became one of the paper’s key interests. Two main topics provide the structure of the collaborative paper: 1) the question of the authors’ positionality; 2) the legitimacy issues related to the study of food within academia and to scholars’ engagement outside it. The authors agree that an inextricable connection of food and politics has not only an academic or theoretical dimension, but also impacts on the realities of people’s lives

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