Authentic Possibilities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5826344 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth L Krause (0000-0002-0402-5470, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 13-27 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1529-3262 • E-ISSN: 1533-8622 |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1525/gfc.2023.23.1.13 |
| OpenAlex | W4322703860 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
This article argues for the value of authenticity as an analytic. "Authentic possibilities" plays on a double meaning. In one sense, possibilities may be "authentic" in terms of what is true, real, original, grounded, or not fake. In another sense, authenticity as a concept may offer possibilities for analysts to notice how value is created. This article draws on long-term as well as disrupted ethnographic research in the Made in Italy arena across two sectors-slow figs and fast fashion-to theorize authentic possibilities. Fieldwork disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic opened conceptual space to propose a nonbinary approach to authenticities. In breaking from the authentic-inauthentic binary and taking inspiration from artisanal producers of figs, the article offers authenticities as an analytic to illuminate uncommon lessons. Fig producers straddle discipline and improvisation, sustaining and generating novel and nuanced forms of authenticity. The taste of authenticity may be unpredictable and even at odds with tradition. The article draws inspiration from theorists who signal authenticity's dynamic qualities whether through the slowness of food (Grasseni 2017), the realness of food (Weiss 2012), the emplacement of value (Cavanaugh and Shankar 2014), the power of reverse engineering terroir (Paxson 2010), and "stifling" aspects of authenticity (Gross 2020). The article is structured around four heterogenous instruments: place, fieldwork, discipline, and vulnerability. Takeaways propose possibilities and limits of authenticity for critical food studies
Episteme · Improvisation · Value (mathematics · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Organic Food and Agriculture
Viral Encounters
The labor of terroir and the terroir of labor
Making Italy
Ethnography for a new global political economy? Marcus (1995) revisited, through the lens of Tsing and Nash
Manifesto for Ethnography
Food
Where Have All the Peasants Gone
Locating Value in Artisan Cheese
Configuring the authentic value of real food
Producing Authenticity in Global Capitalism
Rethinking the Economy with Thick Description and Weak Theory
An Interview with Johnnetta Betsch Cole
The peasantries of the twenty-first century
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |