by | September 1, 2022 · 7:07 am

What’s Cooking, September 2022

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

Check out our most recent research blog post, in which Jo Pearce offers her reflections on a PhD by published work. Jo also gives us a whistle stop tour of her research on how the promotion of healthy eating habits and dietary guidelines can impact on the health outcomes of women and children.

The next instalment of our online research talk series is coming up in October: ‘Children’s Food, Feeding and Inequalities’ will feature research presentations from Irmak Karademir Hazir and Filippo Oncini. The date will be confirmed shortly, with information distributed via the JISC list and our Twitter account (be sure to follow us: @SHU_CHEFS). Meanwhile, details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page. The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

After a summer break, our virtual research roundtables are back! The roundtables are an informal chance to check in, share updates, trade suggestions, ask questions and bounce ideas around. No prep needed—just a chance to meet up and talk CHEFS for an hour:

  • Friday 16 September, 3.30-4.30pm
  • Thursday 17 November, 4-5pm
  • Wednesday 14 December, 4-5pm

Research roundtable meeting invites (with Zoom link and meeting password) will be sent out shortly via the CHEFS JISC list. Not joined the JISC list yet? See information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage. In the meantime, please email me directly (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) if you’d like me to forward a meeting invite.

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including a recent publication on baby-led weaning, research on household food waste in collaboration with Sheffield City Council—with a call for participants!, and reflections on the recent Nutrition Society Summer Conference);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (various calls for papers in relation to food/drink and sustainability, craft, time, communication);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the November 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Jo Pearce and Rachel Rundle have had their latest paper on baby-led weaning (BLW) published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. In ‘Baby-led weaning: A thematic analysis of comments made by parents using online parenting forums,’ they report on an interpretive thematic analysis of messages and responses posted on three UK parenting forums, relating to complementary feeding. The analysis found that the characterisation of BLW by parents was varied but they described BLW having an ethos which included trusting the baby, role modelling, developing confidence with food and sharing the social aspects of mealtimes. BLW also offered an alternative to those actively seeking something different or a default for those whose baby refused purees or spoon feeding. BLW felt like a natural progression, with low parental effort for some, and a source of anxiety, stress, choking risk and mess for others. Many parents struggled to find a process (what to eat and when) within BLW, that they could follow. Finger foods were used synonymously with BLW but many mixed/blurred aspects of both TW and BLW. The authors conclude that the interpretation of BLW varies considerably between parents and a broader definition of BLW may be required, along with guidance on the process and purpose of BLW. 

Dianne Dean, Pallavi Singh, Scott Jones, and Nikita-Marie Bridgeman, all from Sheffield Business School, are working with Sheffield City Council to examine household food waste. Flats and households in four trial areas in Sheffield have been selected by Sheffield City Council to take part in a weekly food waste recycling trail, taking place over the next three months. If you live in a trial area (Woodseats/Meersbrook/Norton Lees/Chapeltown/Ecclesfield/Burncross/ Arbourthorne/Gleadless Valley/Darnall) you may have been given a food caddy to collect food waste in, roll of liners for the caddy and an outside food waste bin. The research team are seeking participants that live in one of the four trial areas and are taking part in the Sheffield City Council food waste trial scheme. The research team are interested in better understanding the process of food disposal in the household and data will be collected by means of diaries and semi-structured interviews. If you are in the Sheffield City Council food waste trial scheme, and would like to participate in the research project, please email Professor Dianne Dean (Dianne.Dean@shu.ac.uk) or Dr Pallavi Singh (p.singh@shu.ac.uk).

Jenny Paxman reflected on the Nutrition Society Summer Conference, which took place in July in Sheffield, with a focus on ‘Food and Nutrition: Pathways to a Sustainable Future.’ The Scientific Programme Organisers comprised Jenny and Lucie Nield from Sheffield Hallam University, and Liz Williams and Samantha Caton from the University of Sheffield, and the conference was a collaborative endeavour with teams from Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Council working together throughout. Delegates were effusive in their praise of everything from the main venue at SHU, to the social activities and of course the scientific programme! We welcomed speakers from all over the world, and it was wonderful to reconnect with colleagues and collaborators.

Jennifer Smith Maguire was interviewed by WineLand Magazine (which targets South African wine industry stakeholders) about her collaborative research on wine farmworker heritage stories; the article is due out in this month’s ‘heritage’ issue. Jen will also be presenting ‘Vina aperta and the quest for interconnectedness’ as a keynote at the online symposium ‘Towards an Eliasian Understanding of Food in the 21st Century’, organised by the University of Huddersfield on 7 September. Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias, the talk considers what we might learn about wine, and food more generally, by contrasting the concepts of vinum clausum (a view of wine as a static object, the consumption of which is reducible to discrete variables) and vina aperta (a view of wine as a processual ‘thing,’ the accomplishment of which is fundamentally bound up with the problems of humans’ interdependence with the natural world, others, and with themselves). The paper suggests that foregrounding the processual, interdependent character of wine provides valuable insights into what drives some producers and consumers to pursue alternative market relations that quench a thirst for interconnectedness, while offering potential routes toward more sustainable production and consumption.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Call for papers: special issue on Food and Sustainability. Deadline 30 September.
The journal Sustainability (impact factor: 3.251) will feature a special issue on the topic of ‘Food and Sustainability’. This Special Issue will focus broadly on how the food and drink industry can meet the challenge of embedding sustainability into its business strategies and operations as well as nudging consumers towards making more sustainable food choices. Many food businesses today are under pressure to demonstrate how their products and services are making a positive contribution towards society. However, one of the biggest challenges for businesses is progressing sustainability initiatives from an added benefit view to an integrated, value-driven to business approach. Deadline for submission is 30 September 2022. Full details here.

Call for papers: XX ISA World Congress of Sociology- Economic Sociology of Craftsmanship. Deadline 30 September.
Andrey Sgorla is coordinating a session on the Economic Sociology of Craftsmanship at the XX ISA World Congress of Sociology. This will be presented in English and Spanish and will take place from June 25th- July 1st 2023 in Melbourne, Australia.  The deadline for authors to submit their abstracts is September 30th 2022 at 24:00 GMT. More information available at Session: Economic Sociology of Craftsmanship (XX ISA World Congress of Sociology (June 25-July 1, 2023)) (confex.com). Any questions about the session or call for papers can be sent to Andrey at afsgorla@gmail.com.

Call for chapters: time and alcohol. Deadline 4 November.
‘It’s Five O’clock Somewhere’: Time, Alcohol, and Other Beverages. Dr Peter Howland is looking for 10-12 chapters which critically explore the history and/or ethnographies of time and the role that it plays in the production, exchange and consumption of drinks and beverages (of any form) to be included in an edited volume. All disciplinary perspectives are welcome and it is hoped that this publication will be included in Routledge’s Critical Beverage Studies series. If you would like to apply to be included in this proposal, please email your name, institutional details, a proposed paper title and an abstract (200-500 words) to p.j.howland@massey.ac.nz. The deadline for applications is 4th November 2022.

Call for papers: Third International Conference on Food and Communication. Deadline TBC (details due in September).
The third conference on Food and Communication brings together researchers who work on the intersection of food and communication. The next one will be held in Örebro, Sweden, 13 – 15th September 2023 and the call for papers will be announced soon in September 2022. More information available at:  Food & Communication Conference – Food & Communication Conference (foodcommunication.net) and you can see some of the previous conference events on Twitter via the hashtag #foodcommunicationconf

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking
The next edition of What’s Cooking will be November 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 31 October.

CHEFS blog
Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

 

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by | July 21, 2022 · 6:44 pm

Reflections on a PhD by Published Work

image of diploma, cap and books

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

In June, I successfully defended my PhD on the Basis of Published Work, ‘Teachable moments in the promotion of healthy eating habits in pregnancy and early childhood.’ My dissertation focuses on how nutritional exposures during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood can impact on both the short-term and long-term health outcomes of children, drawing together eight previously published articles. In this blog, I want to share some insights on the increasingly common, if still atypical, option of pursuing a PhD by publication. But first, a quick snapshot of my dissertation!

Pregnancy has often been described as a ‘teachable moment’, where women may have increased motivation to change their dietary and other health behaviours. Other teachable moments exist whenever families make choices around nutrition, such as breast or formula feeding, the introduction of solid foods and what to eat at home or at school. The thesis considers whether the promotion of healthy eating habits and adherence to dietary guidelines during these teachable moments have the potential to improve the health outcomes of women and children. The thesis was comprised of eight papers: article one was a service evaluation of a midwife-led intervention to prevent excessive gestational weight gain, articles two and three explored women’s feelings about their weight, diet, nutrition, and physical activity (PA) during pregnancy; four and five were systematic reviews and found some limited evidence that very early introduction of solid foods (≤ 4 months) and high intakes of protein in infancy may contribute to overweight and obesity risk later in childhood. Articles six and seven (in press) explored baby-led weaning (BLW) and found understanding of and adherence to the characteristics of BLW varied considerably amongst parents reporting using the method. A final paper explored why some families choose not to take universal infant free school meals. Overall, the research highlights that health promotion activity should focus on the long-term healthy eating habits of women as the gatekeepers of the family diet, whilst recognising the challenges that women face during and following pregnancy.

Following my PhD viva, my examiners asked me to add a section reflecting on the published works route and why I had chosen to complete my PhD in this way. I know why I had chosen this route, but as I looked for some references to support the reflection, I found there was surprisingly little written in the academic literature. Apparently, PhD by published works is becoming increasing popular, but neither the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) nor the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) publish statistics about the number of registered candidates, percentage of candidates or completions in the UK. Moreover, each institution publishes its own guidelines, which vary in the level detail provided to prospective candidates.

The major criteria of any PhD are appropriate methods, coherence, contribution of knowledge, critical appreciation, independence, and intellectual merit. As Powell notes, PhD candidates should also be ‘capable of continuing to undertake research in an independent and original way’  So, what does this mean for the published works route?

Well, for me, it meant completing and publishing between four and eight (N.B. this may vary, depending on institution) journal articles or book chapters. Each work needed to represent an original contribution to knowledge. Publications had to be first-authored by me, or I had to contribute substantially to one or more aspect of the research (study design, collecting data, analysis and writing up). Additionally, I wrote an overarching narrative comprising a literature review, a critical evaluation of the methodologies used within the publications from the perspective of my research philosophy and a discussion of the theme uniting the publications. Taking this route to PhD also meant that I worked independently. My advisor co-authored six of my publications and was very supportive but in terms of preparing the thesis, they just provided some guidance on which publications were suitable to use, the structure of the final report and some feedback on each completed section. My total thesis, including publications and a critical narrative had to adhere to one theme and total 70,000-100,000 words (again, this varies with considerably by institution).

I chose to complete my PhD via the published works route when I found myself in the position of being a university lecturer, but without a PhD. I could have opted for a traditional PhD, completed part time over six or more years. But given the amount of research I had already been involved with, and my existing academic and research experience, I opted for PhD by published works. A key advantage for me was being able to continue to research and publish alongside my teaching role. I could also complete the PhD without further reducing my part time hours.

Nevertheless, there are disadvantages of the published works route. First and foremost: it is not a quicker journey! It is still time consuming and competed with other demands of my job. There is also the added burden of accountability and self-motivation. Getting articles finished and published can be challenging and not all your publications will fit your theme, the time frame or eligibility criteria (for example, being published whilst in a previous job role).

This aside, the published works route should be an option all university staff are aware of—whether they are advising prospective PhD candidates, or (especially) if they are considering how to juggle a PhD alongside juggling part- or full-time work with family life. My advice would be to study your University’s specific guidance and find others at your institution who have completed their PhD work in this way, to decide if this is an option for you. Also, it helps to plan research-led teaching, for example, supervision of student projects, which will support you to complete publications in a timely manner. To quote Badley, in one of the few relevant articles I managed to find, a PhD by published works can ‘represent a formidable level of doctorateness’  but it is definitely not an easy option!

 

Jo Pearce completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham. She currently works as a senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. Jo’s current research interests include complementary feeding, baby-led weaning, and school food.

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by | June 30, 2022 · 6:32 pm

What’s Cooking, July 2022

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

Check out our most recent blogs, featuring Megan Flint’s prize-winning e-poster, outlining her PhD research on Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety, and Jennifer Smith Maguire’s account of a recent trip to South Africa as part of research on wine farmworker heritage stories.

The latest instalment of our online research talk series was just yesterday, with ‘paired papers’ focused on craft drink and food. Thomas Thurnell-Read shared his research on craft gin distillers and the themes of biography and kinship and craft gin, and Belinda Zakrzewska presented her co-authored work on authenticity, coloniality and Peruvian cuisine. A recording of the session is now available on our ‘past talks’ webpage. Looking ahead, the next ‘paired papers’ session will be in October (date TBC) on ‘Children’s Food, Feeding and Inequalities’ featuring research presentations from Irmak Karademir Hazir and Filippo Oncini. Full details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page. The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

If you’re around Sheffield, it’s not too late to register to attend the Nutrition Society summer conference, which Sheffield Hallam University and University of Sheffield are delighted to be hosting 12-15 July, with support from Sheffield City Council. The conference theme is Pathways to Sustainability. Registration deadline is 5 July. Conference information and registration link available here.

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (a bumper crop of updates!);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including a call for papers for a special issue on food and sustainability);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the September 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Sheffield Business School and the Business, Technology, and Engineering College of Sheffield Hallam University recently hosted a PGR and ECR Conference on the theme ‘Does Impact Matter?‘ Congratulations to the two food-focused, joint winners of the conference prize for the best e-poster presentation! Ufuoma Arangebi’s poster examined ‘Intergenerational cross-cultural attitudes towards household food waste’ and Megan Flint’s poster examined ‘Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety.’ Congratulations, Ufumuo and Megan! You can read more about Megan’s research, and see the full poster in her recent CHEFS blog.

Jo Pearce, senior lecturer in Nutrition, successfully defended her PhD by publication, ‘Teachable moments in the promotion of healthy eating habits in pregnancy and early childhood’, in June. Jo’s PhD engages with issues of how nutritional exposures during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood can impact on both the short-term and long-term health outcomes of children. Pregnancy has often been described as a ‘teachable moment’, where women may have increased motivation to change their dietary and other health behaviours. Other teachable moments exist whenever families make choices around nutrition, such as breast or formula feeding, the introduction of solid foods and what to eat at home or at school. The thesis considers whether the promotion of healthy eating habits and adherence to dietary guidelines during these teachable moments, have the potential to improve the health outcomes of women and children. The thesis was comprised of eight papers: two explored women’s feelings about their weight, diet, nutrition, and physical activity (PA) during pregnancy; two were systematic reviews and found some limited evidence that very early introduction of solid foods (≤ 4 months) and high intakes of protein in infancy may contribute to overweight and obesity risk later in childhood; two further papers explored baby-led weaning (BLW) and found understanding of and adherence to the characteristics of BLW varied considerably amongst parents reporting using the method; a final paper explored why some families choose not to take universal infant free school meals. Overall, the research highlights that health promotion activity should focus on the long-term healthy eating habits of women as the gatekeepers of the family diet, whilst recognising the challenges that women face during and following pregnancy. Congratulations Dr Pearce! 

Caroline Westwood was recently at the annual ESRS (European Society for Rural Sociology) conference. The main conference theme was rural entrepreneurship, with talks covering a range of issues including agri-food entrepreneurship in small, rural SMEs, and connections between food, farming, rural tourism and diversification. Caroline presented the paper, ‘Rural and Agricultural Shows: New Strategies for Supporting Entrepreneurs,’ which focuses on the impacts that covid has had on exhibitors at these events. The conference presentation began by looking at attendees’ pre-pandemic experiences at these traditional events, followed by data collected from exhibitors who had attended virtual agricultural shows in 2020 during the pandemic, with a focus on how they have adapted their businesses since. This was in collaboration with Professor Gary Bosworth from Northumbria University who specialises in rural entrepreneurship. Caroline and Gary are planning future collaborations to extend this initial study.

Lucie Nield is currently working with adolescents from low SES groups to investigate food choice in adolescents. We have used a Photovoice methodology and have developed a number of research themes from the qualitative data. Next steps: working with the adolescents on how we can use the information to advocate for a change that they would like to see—namely changes to school lunches! Lucie is also working with SHU colleagues on two other research areas: with Jereme Snook, she is carrying out a review of the qualitative literature around lived experience of obesity and discrimination in all areas of life (e.g., education, healthcare, employment) and how this links with inequality; with Steven Marshall, Michael Thelwell and Simon Choppin, Lucie is also looking at new ways to measure people’s body shape and size. The team are currently recruiting for participants. Please use this link to see the Participant Information Sheet and questionnaire.

Lucie will also be presenting research findings at the People, Place and Policy Conference at Sheffield Hallam University on 6 July, from on a study investigating the lived experience of people who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Sheffield. The research examines their experiences of the health service, dietary and lifestyle change with an aim of using the acquired knowledge to feed into service redesign and development. It has been coproduced by Community, Voluntary and Social Enterprise organisations and investigates their potential role and strengths in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

John Dunning was recently in Crete for the ICOT (International Conference on Tourism) conference. John gave a presentation, ‘Wine service in restaurants: changing trends and the impact on the professional wine steward.’ Additionally, John was a participant in the Panel Discussion focused on ‘Wine tourism in Crete: Strengthening the industry-research nexus.’ The panel consisted of representatives of local government, winemaking, sommeliers, the hospitality sector, and academia—a fantastic mix!

John was also busy with travel and presentations in May. In early May, he was at the HRC Culinary Academy in Sofia Bulgaria, regarded as one of the best culinary schools in Eastern Europe. John delivered a presentation on food and culinary trends, carried out some professional development in their training restaurant, had discussions about curriculum, and met with hospitality employers in Sofia. Later in the month, John was at the 2022 CHME (Council for Hospitality Management Education) Conference in Edinburgh, where he presented a paper co-authored with Daniel Ma: ‘Wine consumer behaviour and attitudes: A focus on Australian Chardonnay.’

Jennifer Smith Maguire recently finished off her sabbatical period with a research trip to the Cape Wine Lands, South Africa: read about it in her recent CHEFS blog post. Jen is looking forward to September, when she’ll be delivering one of the keynote presentations (a taste of the wine book she’s been working on while on sabbatical!) at ‘Towards an Eliasian Understanding of Food in the 21st Century’, a one-day conference at the University of Huddersfield.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Call for papers for a special issue on Food and Sustainability. Deadline 30 September.
The journal Sustainability (impact factor: 3.251) will feature a special issue on the topic of ‘Food and Sustainability’. This Special Issue will focus broadly on how the food and drink industry can meet the challenge of embedding sustainability into its business strategies and operations as well as nudging consumers towards making more sustainable food choices. Many food businesses today are under pressure to demonstrate how their products and services are making a positive contribution towards society. However, one of the biggest challenges for businesses is progressing sustainability initiatives from an added benefit view to an integrated, value-driven to business approach. Deadline for submission is 30 September 2022. Full details here.

Eat Smart Sheffield: check out their summer 2022 newsletter

Food-focused teaching resources: Food and Drink Federation recorded webinars
Changing Consumer Habits: Levercliff, category consultants to the food and drink industry, have tracked consumer behaviour since March 2020. The research findings will reveal how consumer habits are evolving – what is important to them? What does the future look like?

The future of food & what it means for manufacturers: Natasha Catchpole and Ben Hughes from CFC will be discussing how manufacturers are responding to the huge consumer demand for meat free, vegan and vegetarian alternatives.

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be September 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 31 August.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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by | June 28, 2022 · 2:49 pm

Researching Wine Farmworker Heritage Stories

Photo of a vineyard

I spent last week in South Africa’s Cape Winelands. This long-delayed trip is part of ongoing research on wine farmworker heritage: a collaboration with Mr Charles Erasmus (of the Wine Industry Value Chain Roundtable, a multi-stakeholder organisation reflecting the entire South African wine industry), and Ms Sharron Marco-Thyse (of the Centre for Rural Legal Studies). The trip had originally been scheduled for May 2020, with the purpose of carrying out two ‘storytelling workshops’ with farmworkers. Covid cancelled that trip, but it didn’t cancel the research: Sharron and Charles conducted the workshops, and I attended via Zoom. In January 2021 we completed the findings report (available here), and when international travel restrictions finally lifted in early 2022, I rebooked my flight.

The question driving the research emerged as an upshot of my work on super-premium wines around the world. For fifteen years, I have looked at how various actors—winemakers, retailers, sommeliers, distributors, writers and so on—create markets for organic, biodynamic, ‘natural,’ and other small-scale wines (or as some like to call them: ‘weird’ wines!). Key to the creation of value for such wines are provenance stories: narratives and representations that offer some degree of transparency as to where a wine was made (often latched to the language of terroir), by whom, how, and when. (For example, I’ve written about these issues in relation to how specialist wine media circulate new criteria of ‘good taste’ and how small-scale ‘grower champagne’ producers challenge established product conventions.) Stories about the heritage of the winery, the authentic rootedness of wines in their place of origin, and the winemaker’s artisanal ethos of hand-crafted viticulture are the lingua franca for such wines. And yet, there is a glaring gap in the weird wine storyverse. While the winemakers I’ve interviewed almost always underscore the essential contribution of farm workers to careful production, those same workers rarely if ever appear in winery marketing communications. While wine intermediaries consistently champion hand-picked grapes and machine-free vineyard management as markers of quality, the actual people who hand-pick the grapes and hand-prune the vines are almost entirely absent from consumer-facing wine stories. In taking note of that void, I started to formulate a question: What would (and could) it look like to include farmworkers as wine provenance storytellers?

With that question in mind, and informed by research on the silencing and/or problematic framing of agricultural labour in food and drink value chains more generally (e.g., excellent work by Maria Touri, Anelyse Weiler and others), I emailed Charles, who I’d first met in 2015 while researching South African organic and biodynamic wine producers. Was he interested in collaborating? Yes! We started to explore what sort of research would be an appropriate way forward. After two unsuccessful large grant applications in 2018 (for an ambitious cross-cultural comparison of farmworkers and provenance in the context of South Africa, India and Ecuador, working with wonderful colleagues Maria Touri and Emma-Jayne Abbots), I decided to scale the research back to a more feasible pilot. It was high time to get back to South Africa and get this research started, one way or another…

photo of Seven Sisters winery

On a Sheffield Hallam-funded trip in January 2019, Charles introduced me to Sharron, and we mapped out a plan. The resulting project design—centred on generating a compelling record of wine farmworkers’ heritage stories—drew heavily on Charles’ and Sharron’s immense experience in working with farmworkers, and Sharron’s expertise in facilitating workshops. On that trip, we also scoped potential case study wineries for the workshops, which led to us finding a ‘home’ for our pilot project: Seven Sisters, one of the very few black owned wine farms in South Africa. Seven Sisters is owned by Vivian Kleynhans. As a black woman winemaker, Vivian is an exceptional, inspiring pioneer; gaining her support for the pilot was truly critical.

The pilot project aimed to:

  • develop a multi-stakeholder perspective on South African wine farmworkers’ heritage stories (reflecting wine farmworkers and wine producers, and export market (UK) wine consumers and intermediaries);
  • demonstrate the potential of farmworkers as active co-creators of winery ethical brand value, and of farmworker heritage stories for ethical value creation in a major export market (UK).

The pilot was made possible through funding from the UK & Ireland Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Seed Funding Scheme and Sheffield Hallam University (the Developing International Research Funding Opportunities (DIRFO) Scheme); through collaboration with, and contributions in kind from, Seven Sisters, WIVCRT, and CRLS; and through the research assistance of Ms Nikita-Marie Bridgeman, who carried out some of the UK-based components of the study as part of her dissertation for her MSc in Food Consumer Marketing and Product Development at Sheffield Hallam.

photo of author and rental carLast week, two years after those original storytelling workshops, I was back in the Winelands to explore next steps with Charles and Sharron. In a Renault Kwid (a rental car of dubious stamina and fuel efficiency), I covered 609 km in six days, travelling between Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, and Somerset. I met with a range of wine industry stakeholders to present a summary of the pilot, gather responses to the findings, and solicit views on the value of extending the research. (When and where appropriate, I also asked the pragmatic funding question!)

One of the most important meetings of the trip was the first, which took me back to Seven Sisters. A few hours after my arrival in Cape Town, Sharron and I had a feedback session with some of the original participants in the 2020 farmworker storytelling workshops. It was super to see Vivian again, and to witness first hand that Seven Sisters had not only survived the pandemic (Covid-related restrictions hit the South African wine industry hard), but was thriving. It was also brilliant to finally meet participants in person (and to recognize each other, despite my previous workshop attendance having been limited to that of a floating head on a laptop!).

A central concern of the feedback session was to hear what taking part in the storytelling workshops had meant for participants. What stood out in their memories about the day, and what happened after the workshop? The participants reflected on how the workshops had taken them back to childhood memories of growing up on farms, feelings of freedom to roam and the openness of the space, and amusing tales of high jinks and mischief. They also returned to the theme of expertise, which had come up in the workshops: the intimate knowledge of and attentiveness to the health of the vines; the skilful techniques of pruning and harvesting. Particularly striking were comments about how there had been considerable storytelling after the workshop, both among participants and within their wider farm communities.

To be clear: such feedback does not suggest that farmworker memories, experiences, and everyday conditions are unfailingly positive. The opposite scenario is as (or more) likely, given the glacial rate of transformation of the post-apartheid wine industry and the continued marginalization of farmworkers (see, for example, Agatha Herman’s work). Rather, the feedback session underlined that having a space expressly focused on farmworker stories—happy and heart-breaking, optimistic and tragic—was a validating experience: these memories matter; these stories warrant sharing. In turn, the resulting stories offer a platform for fostering recognition (in Nancy Fraser’s sense of the term) of farmworkers as legitimate contributors to the narratives of South African wine. Such recognition requires a changed perception of farmworkers (on the part of farm and brand owners, the government, the domestic and global wine industry), which is critical for addressing the persistent, unequal distribution of resources and opportunities in South Africa.

Responses at the meetings across the week were overwhelmingly affirmative. This is welcome encouragement as we now seek funding to scale up the pilot, which is likely to involve storytelling workshops oriented to a wider range of wine farmworker contexts (e.g., those working on state-owned, black-owned, and traditional wine farms, and those involved as shareholders of black-owned brands). In the meantime, check out the Farmworker heritage stories pilot study summary and keep your funding fingers crossed for us!

Jennifer Smith Maguire is Professor of Cultural Production and Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University, and leads the CHEFS research cluster. Her research on fine wine cultural producers and intermediaries explores the construction of markets, tastes, and forms of legitimacy and value. She is slowly writing a book about provenance.

 

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by | June 13, 2022 · 7:56 am

Plant-Based Convenience Foods: Consumer Perceptions, Nutrient Profile and Satiety

Sheffield Business School and the Business, Technology, and Engineering College of Sheffield Hallam University recently hosted a PGR and ECR Conference on the theme ‘Does Impact Matter?‘ Congratulations to Megan Flint, who was joint winner of the conference prize for the best e-poster presentation!

Megan’s poster, ‘Plant-based convenience foods: Consumer perceptions, nutrient profile and satiety‘ sets out a clear case for investigating consumers’ perceptions, drivers and barriers with regard to plant-based convenience foods. Plant-based convenience foods sit at a complex junction: on the one hand, plant-based foods may offer a route to improved population health and environmental sustainability; on the other, there are potentially negative health consequences attached to the ultra-processing often underpinning plant-based convenience food safety and palatability.

Megan’s research explores consumers’ health valuation of plant-based convenience foods versus their actual nutritional profile and satiating potential. Doing so offers the potential to assess and improve consumer literacy of plant-based food products, whilst also potentially contributing to new product development and the design of more effective marketing strategies.

Research Questions:

  • What key drivers and barriers are associated with readiness and intent to engage with PB convenience foods in different consumer segments?
  • How does the nutritional profile of PB convenience foods compare with meat-based equivalents?
  • How do PB convenience compare to meat-based equivalents regarding satiating properties?

Research Objectives:

  • To measure current consumer understanding, engagement and health-related motivations to consume PB convenience foods through a cross- sectional survey.
  • To explore consumer experience of PB convenience foods through semi-structured interviews.
  • To analyse and evaluate the nutritional profile of PB convenience foods against suitable meat-based equivalents.
  • To investigate the satiating efficacy of PB convenience foods against a suitable meat-based comparator through an acute feeding study design.

The research design spans three studies: a quantitative cross-sectional design with consumers, complemented by semi-structured interviews;  a comparative analysis of the health value of plant-based convenience foods and meat-based equivalents; and a single-blinded randomised, two-way crossover study will analyse the outcome of plant-based and meat-based test meals on participant appetite and satiety.

Check out Megan’s full award-winning poster here: Megan Flint Poster Presentation 2022

Megan Flint is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD student in the Department of Service Sector Management, Sheffield Business School, working with supervisors Jenny Paxman, Tony Lynn and Simon Bowles.

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Filed under appetite, Diet and health, eating behaviour, plant-based foods, research, sustainability

by | May 3, 2022 · 7:53 am

What’s Cooking, May 2022

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

Sheffield Business School is currently advertising several GTA PhD scholarship opportunities in Hospitality, Tourism, Events and Food & Nutrition (full details on the FindAPhD page, and on the SHU website), and one of the projects is aligned with CHEFS: ‘Food events, ‘sustainability imaginaries’ and shaping consumer perceptions and behaviour,’ working with potential supervisor team of Jennifer Smith Maguire, Mark Norman and Caroline Westwood. We are keen to attract a strong pool of applicants: please can you share widely with your networks? The application deadline is approaching fast: 18 May, noon. More details below.

The latest instalment of our online research talk series was March 23rd, with ‘paired papers’ focused on pubs, alcohol and the pandemic. Joanna Reynolds shared her analysis of how the media’s representations of restrictions on pubs and bars changed over the course of 2020, and Pallavi Singh shared insights from collaborative research on pubs’ and brewers’ changing responses to value creation over 2020. A recording of the session is available on our ‘past talks’ webpage.

Join us for the next session on ‘Craft, Kinship and Colonialism’ on 30 June, 3-4.30, featuring talks from Thomas Thurnell-Read on biography, kinship and craft gin, and from Belinda Zakrzewska on authenticity, coloniality and Peruvian cuisine. Full details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page. The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including a new study on alcohol provision and the experience of public space, and a call for participants in a study about wine gifting);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (details of the CHEFS GTA post with a link to further info and application instructions);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the July 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Joanna Reynolds will be starting a new, two-year study to examine the role of alcohol provision in changing public spaces, with a focus on different areas of Sheffield. The study, funded through the BA / Leverhulme small grants programme, will explore how alcohol provision affects people’s experiences of public spaces, in the context of changing local areas, and the ‘Build Back Better’ agenda, post-COVID. Please get in touch with Jo (Joanna.reynolds@shu.ac.uk) to find out more information about the study.

John Dunning and student researcher Rachel Robinson have been carrying out semi-structured interviews on wine gifting and cultural values. They are keen to recruit further British and Chinese consumers of varying levels of wine involvement. Interested in taking part? You do not have to be a wine expert, or have any particular wine knowledge, to take part and there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers in the research; we are interested in your experiences and opinions! Involvement in the study is voluntary. If you are interested in taking part in an interview (conducted via Zoom), or if you’d like to know more about the research, please contact John (j.dunning@shu.ac.uk). Equally: please feel free to pass on this recruitment request to others. Thank you!

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Graduate Teaching Assistant PhD Scholarship opportunity. Deadline: 18 May, noon.

Food events, ‘sustainability imaginaries’ and shaping consumer perceptions and behaviour

This project aims to improve the sustainability of regional food systems through the platform of food events (e.g. food festivals, farmers markets, agricultural shows), focusing on Yorkshire/Northern England. It explores the construction of food sustainability ‘imaginaries’ (Taylor 2004): normative conventions and expectations as to what constitutes sustainable food systems, and how people imagine everyday life (e.g., eating, purchasing, choosing, growing), and their roles, identities and relations to others in a sustainable food system.

Building on previous examinations of food events as drivers of sustainability (Lin & Bestor 2020; Organ et al 2015; Star, Rolfe & Brown 2020; Williams et al 2015), the research will:

(1) generate a comprehensive account of how ‘food sustainability imaginaries’ are constructed through a food event’s experiential, material and communicative dimensions;
(2) devise and evaluate a food event-based intervention through which to enhance consumers’ practices and behaviours in relation to the environmental, socio-cultural and economic sustainability of food.

Potential supervisory team: Jennifer Smith Maguire, Mark Norman, Caroline Westwood.

Deadline for submissions 18 May, noon.

Further project details available on our CHEFS blog page. To discuss the project, please contact Professor Jennifer Smith Maguire (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk)

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be July 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by 29 June.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

 

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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Filed under alcohol, research, sustainability, What's Cooking?, wine

by | March 1, 2022 · 8:37 am

What’s Cooking, March 2022

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

We had another great instalment of our online research talk series on February 10th, with ‘paired papers’ focused on beer, consumption and authenticity. Nadine Waehning and Victoria Wells (University of York Management School) shared their current research on how beer consumers ‘forage’: in addition to exploring between patch (pub) and within patch (product) consumer choices, they also gave us insights into some neat methods and a York pub tour to boot! Andrey Sgorla (University of Siena) then shared insights from his research into the narrative construction of the Brazilian craft beer market and brewers’ performances of passion and authenticity. A recording of the session is available on our ‘past talks’ webpage.

Our next online research talk is coming up soon! On March 23rd (3.30-5 GMT on Zoom), two of our very own SHU CHEFS members are talking about their research on pubs, alcohol and the pandemic: Joanna Reynolds will give a talk on ‘“Pub-ageddon”! Risk, responsibility and alcohol licensing in England during COVID-19 pandemic,’ providing on analysis of how the media reported restrictions on pubs and bars over the course of 2020, and the shifting discursive framing of problems relating to alcohol consumption and licensing; Pallavi Singh will be sharing insights from qualitative research on ‘Sustainability in the beer and pub industry during the COVID-19 period: An emerging new normal,’ drawing on in-depth interviews with pub and brewery owners, managers, and customers, as well as netnographic and offline observations of pubs’ engagement with customers. Full details (including full abstracts and the Zoom joining link) are available on our Online Research Talks page.

The online talks are open to all, both local and global, students and staff, practitioners and public. Please feel free to share with your networks—all welcome!

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including new food-focused PhD research from new GTAs in Sheffield Business School, and a call for participants in research on wine consumers);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including upcoming online events (online event on the sociology of wine, with (optional!) tasting; webinar on research on post-hospitalization food), funding deadlines and conference calls);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the May 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers, Jen

****************************

Recent CHEFS Activities

We are pleased to welcome two new GTAs in Sheffield Business School, each with a food focus to their research!

In the Department of Management, Ufuoma Arangebi is working with Dianne Dean and Pallavi Singh on her PhD project, which explores the intergenerational and cross cultural attitudes towards the symbolic nature of food and food waste. Ufuoma’s specialist area is Marketing. She has a BSc in Geography and Regional planning and an MSc in International Business. She is very interested in food consumption, the symbolic and ritualistic nature of preparing and sharing food, particularly within the community.

In the Department of Service Sector Management, Megan Flint is working with Jenny Paxman, Tony Lynn and Simon Bowles on her PhD project which aims to explore the consumer health valuation of plant-based convenience foods versus their actual nutritional profile and satiating potential. Megan’s specialist area is Nutrition and Public Health. She has a BSc in Nutrition and Public Health and an MSc in Nutrition with Public Health Management. She’s particularly interested in consumer engagement with novel plant-based convenience foods, and their health value in comparison to meat-based equivalents.

John Dunning and student researcher Rachel Robinson are currently undertaking data collection on wine gifting and cultural values, for research in collaboration with Jennifer Smith Maguire and Samantha McCormick. They are keen to recruit British and Chinese consumers of varying levels of wine involvement for semi-structured interviews. Interested in taking part? You do not have to be a wine expert, or have any particular wine knowledge, to take part and there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers in the research; we are interested in your experiences and opinions! Involvement in the study is voluntary. If you are interested in taking part in an interview (conducted via Zoom), or if you’d like to know more about the research, please contact John (j.dunning@shu.ac.uk). Equally: please feel free to pass on this recruitment request to others. Thank you!

Jennifer Smith Maguire is taking part in an online launch event, to mark the publication of the ‘Constructing the Sociology (or Sociologies) of Wine’ special issue of the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change. (The journal is open access.) All are welcome, so please join us for short talks from the article authors: Friday March 11th, 2.30-4.30 on Zoom. Registration details are below; registered participants will receive the Zoom link when they sign up, along with a list of wine-and-paper pairing recommendations for an informal tasting to close the launch event. Jen is also delighted to share that the co-edited Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture is now available for pre-order, with a 20% discount available until 30th April (code ASM02). The book offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of contemporary research and thinking on how wine fits into the cultural frameworks of production and consumption. Editor royalties have been donated to WaterAid.

Jenny Paxman has been busy with organising the Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2022, to be hosted in Sheffield, 12-15 July. Registration is now open—see the details in the section below; abstract deadline is 17 April.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Constructing the Sociology (or Sociologies) of Wine, online launch event, 11 March, 14.30—16.30 (GMT)
This event is open to all, and marks the ‘Constructing the Sociology (or Sociologies) of Wine’ special issue of the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change. Each of the special issue authors will be suggesting a style and/or region of wine to accompany their article; participants are welcome to join in an informal towards the end of the event. (Wines not supplied!) To attend, please register via Eventbrite. Attendees will receive the Zoom link when they sign up, along with a list of wine and paper pairing recommendations.

Sustain Webinar, 16 March (2-3pm)
Home from Hospital and access to food. This event marks the launch of Home from hospital: Ensuring people have access to food at discharge from hospital and beyond. The guide highlights the importance of this issue and presents good practice case studies from around the country. This event will feature a summary of the guide and speakers from some of the case study areas in the report. Register via the Sustain webpage.

EuroSense 2022 Conference: abstract deadline 18 March
EuroSense 2022 the 10th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research, theme: ‘A Sense of Earth’. 13-16 September 2022, Turku, Finland. Submission deadline of 18 March 2022 for abstracts for workshops, talks and poster presentations on the following themes: Sensory and Consumer Science for Sustainability and Biodiversity | Sensory, FoodTech & Health | Sensory Food Terroir | Cross Cultural in Sensory and Consumer Research | Citizen Involvement | Multisensory Perception | Food Choice, Sensory Perception and Beyond | Sensometrics. View topic descriptions and submit abstracts here

Brewers’ Research and Education Fund: application deadline 31 March
British Beer & Pub Association, through the Brewers’ Research and Education Fund, invites applications for its research grants. These support scientific research and education that supports the UK brewing industry. Projects must satisfy at least one of the following objectives: promoting brewing education, training and research; researching and educating the public about beer consumption; researching the composition and nutritional value of beer in relation to diet and wellbeing; promoting research related to the environmental and economic sustainability of the brewing sector. Project must have a principal benefit to the brewing industry in the UK. Organisations, institutions and individuals may apply.  Information and application procedure available here.

Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2022: abstract deadline 17 April
We’re excited to announce that registration for the Sheffield-hosted Nutrition Society Summer Meeting 2022 is now open. The four day conference, ‘Food and Nutrition: Pathways to a sustainable future’, 12-15 July, will be an in-person event hosted at Sheffield Hallam University city campus organised by SHU in partnership with The University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Council.  The conference will cover various pathways to a sustainable future in food and nutrition, including:

  • Building of ethical food systems
  • Eroding nutritional inequalities
  • Sustaining an ageing population
  • Navigating dietary trends
  • Understanding mechanisms for health
  • Enabling activity: lessons from exercise science

The call for abstracts is now open for our oral communication and poster streams (deadline 17th April 2022).  Please see more details here: https://www.nutritionsociety.org/events/summer-conference-2022-food-and-nutrition-pathways-sustainable-future

Useful resources: Food Insecurity Tracking data from the Food Foundation

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be May 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by Friday 29 April.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog post? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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Filed under eating behaviour, research, surplus waste & excess food in society, Uncategorized, What's Cooking?, wine

by | January 4, 2022 · 8:56 pm

What’s Cooking, January 2022

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

We had a great instalment of our Online Research Talks series in November, when Nino Bariola delivered a presentation on ‘Authenticity, legitimacy, and the racial politics of ceviche’ (10/11/21). Drawing on his doctoral research, and expanding beyond it (we can’t wait for the eventual monograph!), Nino discussed the legitimation and strategic ‘Japanization’ of cerviche over time, how Peruvian chefs have used cerviche to manage racialized forms of stigma, and how cerviche features in processes of cultural wealth generation. The recording of the talk is available on our Online Research Talks page, and is a fantastic resource if you’re teaching or writing on issues of food, national identity, culture, distinction, authenticity and more.

Two further online research talk sessions coming up, both focused on beer:

  • Thursday 10 February, 3-4.30 on Zoom: ‘Craft Beer, Agility and Authenticity’ with presentations from Nadine Waehning (University of York Management School) and Andrey Sgorla (University of Siena). Titles and Abstracts to be confirmed.
  • Week of 21 March (date/time to be confirmed) on Zoom: ‘Pubs, Alcohol and the Pandemic’ with presentations from Joanna Reynolds (Sheffield Hallam University) and Pallavi Singh (Sheffield Hallam University). Titles and Abstracts to be confirmed.

Full details are available on our Online Research Talks page.

We’ve also recently sent out the next round of invites for upcoming CHEFS monthly virtual research roundtables in January and May via the CHEFS JISC email list. Research roundtables are an informal chance to check in, share updates, trade suggestions, ask questions and bounce ideas around. No prep needed—just a chance to meet up and talk CHEFS for an hour. Thanks in advance to Jenny Paxman for hosting:

  • Wednesday 12 January, 3-4pm
  • Wednesday 4 May, 3-4pm

Please feel free to forward the invites to colleagues/PG students who might be interested in joining us. (Not joined the JISC list yet? See information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage. In the meantime, please email me directly (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) if you’d like me to forward a meeting invite.)

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including a new article on wine, and new research in collaboration with SHU student researchers);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including a call for session proposals on food geographies, and a new food poverty report);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the March 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Jennifer Smith Maguire wrapped up the co-edited Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture (now available for pre-order): a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of contemporary research and thinking on how wine fits into the cultural frameworks of production and consumption. Jen’s chapter in the Handbook, ‘Sociology, wine and culture,’ reviews how sociology helps with making sense of wine and culture, in terms of how wine and the ‘doing’ of wine are contingent outcomes of the social actions of multiple actors and organisations; how the cultural production and consumption of wine are shaped by discourses of legitimacy and processes of legitimation; and how taste (of and for) wine is bound up with culture. In December 2021, Jen also published a new article ‘Towards a sociology from wine and vina aperta’ in the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change (open access, i.e. freely available to all). The article outlines a process sociological approach to conceptualizing wine as vina aperta: a multifarious, multifaceted, processual ‘thing’ that is constituted through intended and unintended outcomes of humans’ interdependent relations with the world, others, and themselves. The chapter and article are first steps in pulling together a decade’s worth of wine research into a monograph: the focus for Jen’s January-May 2022 sabbatical.

John Dunning successfully passed the Spanish Wine Scholar (SWS) examination in December. Congratulations to John!

John Dunning and Jennifer Smith Maguire were successful in their bid for Department of Service Sector Management fieldwork funding, to build on their previous research on wine gifting and cultural consumption. They’ll be working with two Sheffield Hallam student researchers (current MSc International Hospitality and Tourism Management student Rachel Robinson, and BSc Nutrition, Diet and Lifestyle graduate Samantha McCormick) to expand their existing sample of interviews with Chinese expat consumers, and generate a comparative data set via interviews with British consumers. They’ll be recruiting participants of varying levels of wine involvement for semi-structured interviews: if you’d like to be involved, please let Jen know (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk)!

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

Call for session proposals for the Food Geographies Research Group sessions at the 2022 RGS-IBG conference. Deadline 14 January 2022.

The Food Geographies Research Group (FGRG) invites Session Proposals for the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2022 (to take place at Newcastle University, from Tuesday 30 August to Friday 2 September 2022, with a strong in-person element (COVID-19 restrictions permitting), and with hybrid and online ways to participate.  Further details of the conference arrangements are given on the RGS website).

FGRG encourages and welcomes interesting Session Proposals that advance the sub-discipline, but priority will be given to sessions that speak directly to the conference theme: ‘Food Geographies of Recovery.’ The Group particularly welcomes sessions from ECRs or PhD students exploring areas within the food geographies field. We encourage and support interesting connections and engagements with other RGS-IBG research groups, where appropriate. Sessions may take the form of presented papers, panels, practitioner forums, discussions or workshops. Innovative sessions and formats are encouraged.  Proposals should include: (i) Title of session; (ii) Name of Co-sponsoring groups, if applicable; (iii) Name and Contact Details for Session Convenors; (iv) Abstract, outlining scope of session  – 200 words max; (v) Number of session timeslots that are sought; (vi) Indication of preferred organisation of session, e.g. 4 x 20min presentation, plus 20min discussion or 5 x 15min presentation, with 5min question for each, we welcome creative formats. Sessions last 1 hour 40 mins; (vii) whether you envisage an online, in-person or hybrid format. The deadline for proposals for FGRG sponsored sessions is Friday 14th January 2022. Proposals for, or questions about, FGRG sponsored sessions should be sent to Mark Stein, Food Geographies Research Group Conference Officer (markstein2010@live.co.uk ).

 

Empowering local action on Food Poverty: Key lessons from Food Power: new report that identifies 10 key lessons on developing food poverty alliances and action plans, with national recommendations for government and funders to lead to the real change needed to ensure everyone is able to access healthy, affordable, sustainable food. Download the full report and find more resources, including guidance for local authorities, case studies and webinars on the Food Power website.

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be March 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by Monday 28 February.

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

 

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by | November 1, 2021 · 9:30 am

What’s Cooking, November 2021

What’s Cooking is an update on all things related to CHEFS: the Culture, Health, Environment, Food and Society research cluster at Sheffield Hallam University. What’s been cooking since our last edition?

We’ve launched a new series of online research talks! Our inaugural talk was on 15 October: Jennifer and Warwick Frost (La Trobe University) joined us from Australia to talk about their research on ‘Food, laneways and public art: The gastronomic transformation of Melbourne.’ Up next: join us on November 10th, 4pm on Zoom for Nino Bariola (University of Texas at Austin) talking about his research on ‘Authenticity, legitimacy, and the racial politics of ceviche.’ Info on how to join on Zoom (plus a link to the recording of Jennifer and Warwick’s talk, and details of upcoming sessions on ‘Craft Beer, Agility and Authenticity’ and ‘Pubs, Alcohol and the Pandemic’) can be found on our Online Research Talks page.

Check out our latest blog post, from Jordan Beaumont: in ‘Electric Currents and Eating Behaviour,’ Jordan tells us about his research on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and eating behaviour. There’s also an invitation to a survey, to share your views on tDCS as part of the research.

CHEFS monthly virtual research roundtables are an informal chance to check in, share updates, trade suggestions, ask questions and bounce ideas around. No prep needed—just a chance to meet up and talk CHEFS for an hour. Upcoming dates:

  • Wednesday 17 November, 2-3pm
  • Wednesday 8 December, 4-5pm

Meeting invites (with Zoom link and meeting password) are sent out via the CHEFS JISC list. Not joined the JISC list yet? See information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage. In the meantime, please email me directly (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk) if you’d like me to forward a meeting invite.

Below, we have:

  • updates on recent CHEFS members’ activities (including the start of new research on how alcohol provision affects people’s experiences of public spaces, and on public sector waste service delivery focussing specifically on household waste);
  • resources/calls for papers/conference announcements (including upcoming abstract submission deadlines for conferences on beer, food and drink, and wine);
  • the usual call for contributions and content for the January 2022 edition of What’s Cooking.

Cheers,
Jen

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Recent CHEFS Activities

Joanna Reynolds (Senior Lecturer in Sociology) is applying for a BA/Leverhulme small research grant to understand how alcohol provision affects different people’s experiences of public spaces and access to the benefits of these spaces, to inform efforts to ‘build back better’ high streets and town centres, post-COVID-19. She plans to conduct a case study of Sheffield, exploring experiences of alcohol provision in different areas and how this shapes people’s experiences (positively and negatively) of public spaces.

Dianne Dean and Pallavi Singh are undertaking a new project that examines household waste. ‘Co-creation and co-destruction of value in public waste service delivery: Building a sustainable service for household waste’ seeks to build an understanding of public sector waste service delivery focussing specifically on household waste. The service provision provided by local councils to collect household waste is becoming more complex and the demand for reuse, recycling and disposal of different types of waste increases. The aim of our research is to examine the extent to which households engage in the recycling process and question if or what customer value is derived from household waste disposal. While traditional service delivery was developed by the organisation, contemporary practices also consider the person who is engaged in the service. Customers are encouraged to recycle in order to minimise waste and thus work to co-create value through a sustainable household waste system. However, reluctance to engage in these sustainable practices leads to value co-destruction and service failure so we need to understand the barriers to engagement. Earlier research has identified that if effort is required then there is more chance of value co-destruction but if there is little effort required it is more likely that value-is co-created. Thus, service delivery is improved and, with less likelihood of service failure, becomes more sustainable.

We would like to work with local council departments with responsibility for household waste and examine the service provision offered to their customers. There are a range of different approaches that are adopted in different councils so we would like to compare and contrast service systems and identify any barriers to adoption and also establish how the service delivery can be improved. The outcome of the research will lead to improved mechanisms that can enhance service delivery and a more sustainable environment. For further information please contact Professor Dianne Dean at Dianne.dean@shu.ac.uk or Dr Pallavi Singh at P.Singh@shu.ac.uk.

John Dunning and Jennifer Smith Maguire hosted an online ‘Digital Innovation and Wine’ colloquium on 13 September 2021, in collaboration with colleagues at Sheffield Hallam University and Excelia. The event featured two research presentations: Sylvie Lacoste and Rémi Bréhonnet (Excelia) gave a preliminary account of new research on the ‘Digital transformation paradox: The case of the Bordeaux Chateaux (wine-growing estates)’, and John and Jen presented research on ‘Digital storytelling in the context of the Midlands/North UK emergent wine region,’ based on CHEFS research carried out last year. Details of the event available here.

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Resources/call for papers/conference announcements

CFP: Beer Culture Division of PCA Conference 2022, Washington USA, 13 – 16 April 2022. Submission deadline: 15 November 2021
For information or submission to PCA, please go to http://www.pcaaca.org . Proposals are requested for works (panels, paper presentations, well-developed research in progress, multi-mediated/graphic projects) that identify and discuss any aspects of beer, including its producers, its consumers, the communities and identities beer inspires and maintains, and/or its social, cultural, historical, and economic impact. ALL submissions must be made through the conference submission site. For individual papers, please submit a title and 100-word abstract. DEADLINE:  15 November 2021.

CFP – IEHCA International Convention on Food and Drink Studies (2-3 June 2022), Tours, France. Submission deadline: 15 December 2021.
We are pleased to announce that the European Institute for Food History and Cultures (the IEHCA, Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation) is organizing the seventh edition of its annual international convention, to be held on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 June 2022 in Tours (France). The event is part of the ongoing activities organised by the Thematic Reasearch Network led by IEHCA and supported by the Centre-Val de Loire region in pursuit of its editorial policy, support for research and efforts to facilitate networking opportunities among Food Studies researchers. Deadline 15 December 2021. More details at: https://iehca.eu/en/news-events/international-conference

5th Wine Active Compounds Conference, 29 June – 1 July 2022. Submission deadline: 13 December 2021
The fifth edition of the Wine Active Compounds (WAC) conference series will take place in the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon, France, from Wednesday June 29 to Friday July 1, 2022, under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair “Culture & Traditions of Wines” and the Institut Jules Guyot at University of Burgundy. The international WAC conferences have become an essential meeting point for promoting interdisciplinarity in experimental and human and social sciences of vine and wine, considering active compounds related to viticulture, enology, their biological roles and their taste/olfactory properties. Multidisciplinary research on the impact of grape and wine molecules on fermentation processes, on stability, on aroma profile, on health or consumption behaviours will be presented within the frame of four sessions: Viticultural practices and wine compounds; Winemaking processes; Sensory related compounds: perceptions, acceptations, prescriptions and discourses; Compounds with biological interest, including those beneficial and detrimental to health, and associated social representations.
Abstract submissions from September 28 to December 13, 2021 at https://ubwac.com/call-for-abstracts/  Full conference information at https://ubwac.com/

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Call for content for the next edition of What’s Cooking

The next edition of What’s Cooking will be January 2022. Please send content (research updates, calls for expression of interest, relevant calls for papers/conference/event announcements) to j.smith1@shu.ac.uk by Monday 03 January (slightly later publishing due to the holidays!).

 

CHEFS blog

Interested in writing a blog? These are usually 800-1200 words and written for a general audience in an informal style. Blogs can revisit work you’ve already done (e.g., highlighting a recent output/publication); discuss research or research-related activities (teaching, public engagement, etc.) that you are working on; offer your informed take on contemporary food/drink issues or policy; provide a profile on your research. If you’d like to contribute a piece, please get in touch with Jen (j.smith1@shu.ac.uk).

Want to stay updated? Follow us on Twitter (@SHU_CHEFS), subscribe to the blog and/or join our Jisc email list: see information on the very bottom of each CHEFS webpage.

 

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by | September 30, 2021 · 6:23 am

Electric Currents and Eating Behaviour

A person wearing a cap with wires emerging from it

Photo credit: Jordan Beaumont

Have you ever caught a whiff of freshly baked bread, or spotted a gooey chocolate brownie, and instantly been hit with a craving?

Do you run to the shops to buy yourself a treat, or just walk away and carry on with life?

Your response to food is a key part of eating behaviour, and your brain is an important hub for controlling these responses. By interpreting signals from our body, our brain directs us to eat (or stop eating) to maintain our energy needs. But eating goes beyond mere energy requirements – eating is often a social activity, and foods are a source of pleasure and reward. Our brain is able to incorporate these different factors to drive and control our eating behaviours. However, in the current environment, where we are constantly bombarded by food cues (such as the smell and sight of tempting food), it can be difficult to control our eating behaviour.

Data suggests that for some individuals, there is reduced activity within certain areas of the brain that are important for controlling eating behaviour and particularly for preventing impulsive actions associated with overconsumption (e.g. binge eating). This means it is even more difficult to control the response to food and related cues, and we know that people respond differently to the rewarding components of food with some individuals experiencing heightened reward sensitivity. This means these individuals find it particularly difficult to walk away from tempting foods, which often leads to the consumption (or overconsumption) of these highly rewarding, high-calorie foods.

That’s where our research comes in!

Our research looks to change how people respond to food and food-related cues. Specifically, we are looking to alter eating-related measures (e.g. in-the-moment food craving) using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation where a weak electrical current is passed through the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp.

You want to do what, to my what?!

Electric currents + your brain = nasty One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest vibes, but it’s not what you think.

The electric current is very weak, usually up to 2.0 milliampere (mA). To give some context, electroconvulsive therapy (as seen in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) uses electric currents of up to 900 mA. At 2.0 mA, you’re likely to feel a little tingling or itching, but research on the safety of tDCS shows no damage to either the skin or brain tissue, and the technique is widely considered safe for children and adults, as well as healthy individuals and patient populations. (However, do note the ‘do not try this at home’ message at the end of the blog!)

a picture of the study equipment

Photo credit: Jordan Beaumont

While the technique may seem a little elaborate, the equipment is relatively simple – it involves two conductive rubber plates (electrodes), housed inside saline-soaked sponge pads, which are connected to a stimulation device powered using 2x AA batteries. To hold the electrodes in place, you wear a (very flattering) elasticated cap – modelled by yours truly above. That is as exciting as the equipment gets. During stimulation, you’re usually asked to remain seated and relaxed, but can also be asked to complete a computer-based task or watch a short video.

But, what does it actually do?

The brain is like a packed room, with people (neurons, or nerve cells) constantly chatting to each other (sending chemical signals called neurotransmitters). This chatting, or the passing of neurotransmitters from one neuron to the next, is how the brain tells our body to perform certain functions, and is important for driving our behaviour. Through tDCS, we are able to increase or decrease the amount of chatting that occurs, and as such the level of activity within certain parts of the room.

This becomes important where we see low activity in some areas of the brain, such as those that help control our eating behaviours, which contributes to “problematic” behaviour. Through tDCS, we are able to alter brain activity, learning, task performance and behaviour.

The miracle cure for obesity!

Well, not quite. Obesity and eating behaviour are incredibly complex – although the techniques show promise for altering our response to food and food-related cues in some populations (such as those with binge eating behaviour), we’re a long way from testing the efficacy as a tool for obesity treatment. To fully determine the role tDCS may play in altering eating behaviours, and the potential use of this technique for weight management, we need to carry out many (many) more studies. As such, we’re in constant need of participants…

We need your help!

Share your views on non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques.

Whether you’re a tDCS pro, or just hearing about brain stimulation for the first time, we’re looking for individuals over the age of 18 to share their thoughts of these techniques. Simply fill out this short survey around the perceptions of tDCS and other forms of NIBS.

On completion of the survey, you have the opportunity to be entered into a free prize draw to win one of three £50 vouchers.

If you would like to find out more about our research, or you would like to participate in one of our other studies, you can email me via j.beaumont@shu.ac.uk.

An important note…

Please do not try this at home. tDCS procedures within research and clinical settings are rigorously controlled and meticulously monitored to ensure the protocols are safe and ethical. Do-it-yourself (DIY) tDCS can lead to some worrying side effects (e.g. headaches, skin burns, persistent metallic taste) due to the use of unregulated devices and settings beyond safe limits. tDCS should always be delivered by a trained professional.

 

About the author

Jordan Beaumont (@JordanDBeaumont) is a Registered Nutritionist and Associate Lecturer in Food and Nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University. He is also a PhD candidate and Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. The research discussed in this blog was conducted at Leeds Trinity University, under the supervision of Dr Martin Barwood, Dr Danielle Davis, Dr Michelle Dalton and Professor Mark Russell.

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