Becoming ecological citizens: connecting people through performance art, food matter and practices
Becoming ecological citizens: connecting people through performance art, food matter and practices
Engaging the interest of western citizens in the complex food connections that shape theirs’ and others’ personal wellbeing around issues such as food security and access is challenging. The paper is critical of the food marketplace as the site for informing consumer behavior and argues instead for arts-based participatory activities to support the performance of ecological citizens in non-commercial spaces. Following the ongoing methodological and conceptual fascination with performance, matter and practice in cultural food studies we outline what the ecological citizen, formed through food’s agentive potential does, and could do. This is an ecological citizen, defined not in its traditional relation to the state, but rather to the world of humans and non-humans whose lives are materially interconnected through nourishment. The paper draws on the theories of Berlant, Latour, Bennett and Massumi. Our methodology is a collaborative arts-led research project that explored and juxtaposed diverse food practices with artist Paul Hurley, researchers, community partners, volunteers and participants in Bristol, UK. It centered on a ten-day exhibition where visitors were exposed to a series of interactive explorations with and about food. Our experience leads us to outline two steps for enacting ecological citizenship. The first step is to facilitate sensory experiences that enable the agential qualities of foodstuffs to shape knowledge making. The second is to create a space where people can perform, or relate differently, in unusual manners, to food. Through participating in the project and visiting the exhibition, people were invited to respond not only as ‘ethical consumers’ but also as ‘ecological citizens’. This participatory approach to research can contribute to understandings of human-world entanglements
arts-based, citizenship, food, food bank, matter, performance, practice, wellbeing
581-598
Roe, Emma
f7579e4e-3721-4046-a2d4-d6395f61c675
Buser, Michael
006c4537-d0f7-43c4-9c9f-16f15c2a7957
1 October 2016
Roe, Emma
f7579e4e-3721-4046-a2d4-d6395f61c675
Buser, Michael
006c4537-d0f7-43c4-9c9f-16f15c2a7957
Roe, Emma and Buser, Michael
(2016)
Becoming ecological citizens: connecting people through performance art, food matter and practices.
Cultural Geographies, 23 (4), .
(doi:10.1177/1474474015624243).
Abstract
Engaging the interest of western citizens in the complex food connections that shape theirs’ and others’ personal wellbeing around issues such as food security and access is challenging. The paper is critical of the food marketplace as the site for informing consumer behavior and argues instead for arts-based participatory activities to support the performance of ecological citizens in non-commercial spaces. Following the ongoing methodological and conceptual fascination with performance, matter and practice in cultural food studies we outline what the ecological citizen, formed through food’s agentive potential does, and could do. This is an ecological citizen, defined not in its traditional relation to the state, but rather to the world of humans and non-humans whose lives are materially interconnected through nourishment. The paper draws on the theories of Berlant, Latour, Bennett and Massumi. Our methodology is a collaborative arts-led research project that explored and juxtaposed diverse food practices with artist Paul Hurley, researchers, community partners, volunteers and participants in Bristol, UK. It centered on a ten-day exhibition where visitors were exposed to a series of interactive explorations with and about food. Our experience leads us to outline two steps for enacting ecological citizenship. The first step is to facilitate sensory experiences that enable the agential qualities of foodstuffs to shape knowledge making. The second is to create a space where people can perform, or relate differently, in unusual manners, to food. Through participating in the project and visiting the exhibition, people were invited to respond not only as ‘ethical consumers’ but also as ‘ecological citizens’. This participatory approach to research can contribute to understandings of human-world entanglements
Text
Becoming Ecological Citizen Accepted Nov 2015
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
1474474015624243
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 23 November 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 14 January 2016
Published date: 1 October 2016
Keywords:
arts-based, citizenship, food, food bank, matter, performance, practice, wellbeing
Organisations:
University of Southampton
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 384490
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/384490
ISSN: 1474-4740
PURE UUID: 71b6b09c-8fa7-4bd5-927d-f291b2e39c1f
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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2015 15:04
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:28
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Author:
Michael Buser
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