RIS ID
128953
Abstract
Embodied methods have become popular tools for exploring subjective dimensions of social science research, including emotion and affect, as well as contributing substantively to empirical data. Concurrent growth of more-than-human research, in which the human subject is dethroned from an exclusive position of power and agency, offers an opportunity to explore methods beyond human subjectivity. This paper embraces this task by drawing on embodied methods in the context of food research, asking what the practices of transforming nonhuman matter into food reveal about the politics of food and the more-than-human world. Recounting field experiences from two discrete projects in Italy and Australia, we argue that being explicit about the role of the body in research has potential to elicit novel insights about politics and the contingency of human agency. Specifically, our research with food contributes to debates about the relationship between local knowledge and the market, animal welfare and farming standards, and wild foods and discourses of belonging.
Publication Details
Wilbur, A. & Gibbs, L. (2018). 'Try it, it's like chocolate': embodied methods reveal food politics. Social and Cultural Geography, Online First 1-20.