Culture – Media – Communication (Olomouc, 8th April 2016)
The Taste of Interconnectedness Discourses of Social and Environmental Responsibility in Czech Culinary Magazines
Michal Bočák Faculty of Arts, University of Prešov, Slovakia
culinary discourses in various foodscapes Barthes (1961)
Warde (1997)
Bugge (2003)
Ferguson (2004)
Massa – Karisto – Lillunen (2011)
Bočák (2012)
France
Great Britain
Norway
French cuisine
Finland
Czech Rep.
1. national history
1. novelty and tradition
1. gourmet
2. „anthropological situation of the French consumer“
2. health and indulgence
3. nation
3. health
3. economy and extravagance 4. care and convenience
2. health
1. cooking and chefing
1. ecologization 1. culinary cultivation 2. medicaliza(gourmet) 2. domestic and tion public 3. moralization, 2. tradition 3. feminine and 4. cosmetization and nostalgia masculine 3. social and 5. re-economiecological 4. bricoleur and zation responsibility homme de métier 5. professional and domestic
4. healthy diet and physical beauty
Czech culinary magazines culinary (consumer, B2C) vs. gastronomic (trade, B2B) magazines cheap segment (recipes) vs. expansive segment (gourmet, lifestyle) 3 general gourmet titles: Apetit, F.O.O.D. and Gurmet (+ Czech version of La Cucina Italiana)
food & responsibility discourses qualitative analysis of selected 2011 issues social & environmental responsibility social responsibility frame – social and economic relations: local food production, farmer’s markets, fair trade, the sense of community... environmental frame: organic/eco/bio food production magazines call their audiences for participation in discursive and social practices of responsibility
social responsibility de-individualised, institutionalised view of food & eating ethical consumption: intra-/inter-ethnic solidarity propagation of farmer’s markets – a schedule of forthcoming events post-socialist renaissance of the Czech foodscape: … české plemeno přeštické prase vypadalo velmi podobně a ještě před padesáti lety se běžně chovalo. [Czech breed of Přeštice pig looked very similar and was still commonly bred fifty years ago.] (Apetit 07/2011)
resistance to capitalist global food distribution chains (supermarkets): Kupujte tuzemské broskve, které dozrály na stromech, a ne až cestou do obchodu. [Buy domestic peaches that ripened on the trees, and not when on the way to the store.] (Apetit 07/2011) … nejlepší broskev je utržená zralá přímo ze stromu – její cesta do vašich rukou je co nejkratší. [… the best peach is picked ripe directly from the tree – its way into your hands is as short as possible.] (Gurmet 07/2011)
environmental responsibility bio/eco foodstuffs – both health & environmental framing stories from eco farms (vs. conventional farming): … jatka vidět musíte! Pochopíte tady, že ani na konci života nejsou naše krávy stresované a maso neztrácí na kvalitě. [... you must see the slaughterhouse! Here you will understand that even at the end of life our cows are not stressed and the meat does not lose quality.] (Apetit 01/11) Zdaleka to vypadá jako dětský stanový tábor či škola v přírodě. [From afar, it looks like a children's summer camp or an outdoor school.] (Apetit 07/2011)
animal rights (but vegetarianism/veganism had only sporadic occurrence): … málem jsem účast na focení zrušila (a nebyla jsem sama). V hlavě mi totiž naskočila scéna z filmu Julie & Julia, v níž hlavní hrdinka nebyla schopna hodit živého humra do hrnce s vroucí vodou… Radek [Kašpárek] humra naštěstí usmrtil humánnějším způsobem. [... I almost cancelled the participation in the photo shoot (and I was not alone). The scene in the film Julie & Julia, in which the main heroine has not been able to throw a live lobster into a pot of boiling water, came into my mind... Fortunately, Radek [Kašpárek] killed the lobster in a more humane way.] (Gurmet 01/2011)
legitimisation by top chefs – local purchase of foodstuffs: Jsme ti, kteří znají své dodavatele i zákazníky osobně. [We are the ones who know their suppliers and customers personally.] (F.O.O.D. 07/2011)
conclusion ... bez ohledu na náboženství a region, odkud pocházíte, to, co vás spojuje, je jídlo. Jinými slovy: Make food, not war! [... regardless of religion and the region you come from, food is what unites you. In other words: Make food, not war!] (Gurmet 01/2011)
sources Barthes, Roland. 2013. „Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption.“ Pp. 23–30 in Food and Culture: A Reader. Counihan, C. – Van Esterik, P. New York – London: Routledge. Bočák, Michal. 2012. „Zlaté časy poctivých kuchýň: vybrané ingrediencie diskurzu tradicionalizmu súčasných českých kulinárskych časopisov.“ In Jazyk a kultúra 2012, vol. 3, no. 12. (http://www.ff.unipo.sk/jak/12_2012/bocak.pdf) Bugge, Annechen Bahr. 2003. „Cooking – As Identity Work.“ Paper to be presented at The 6th Conference of the European Sociological Association Ageing Societies, New Sociology, Murcia, September 23–26 2003. (http://www.um.es/ESA/papers/St3_22.pdf) Ferguson, Priscilla Parkhurst. 2004. Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine. Chicago – London: The University of Chicago Press. Massa, Ilmo – Karisto, Antti – Lillunen, Anu. 2011. „The Discourses on Food and Eating: A Study Based on Finnish Students’ Environmental Biographies .“ Pp. 1–32 in Environmentalica Fennica 2011, no. 30. (http://www.helsinki.fi/ymparistotieteet/pdf/EF/EF30.pdf) Warde, Alan. 1997. Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary Antinomies and Commodity Culture. London: Sage.
[email protected] michalbocak.weebly.com Bočák, Michal. 2016. “The Taste of Interconnectedness: Discourses of Social and Environmental Responsibility in Czech Culinary Magazines.” Presentation at the conference Culture – Media – Communication, Olomouc, Czech Republic, 8th April 2016.
