The role and aim of food experiences is, therefore, not necessarily only to provide its customers with fresh produce but also to instill and create a sense of community for both the citizen as well as the consumer, who are no longer viewed as two separate categories. This historical division of consumer and citizen is rather questionable , and in recent literature the meanings of consumption, and thus use of things, are treated, rightly, with much seriousness as the full meanings and uses of objects to the consumer is more fully unfolded and understood. This is done even to the point where the object makes the human actors, involved with its transformation, its subjects. This can be seen in a historical perspective , or using present research methodologies of nonhuman agency . Event studies have, also, recently emerged as an original field of investigation separate from tourism and marketing, traditionally the most prominent areas of event research, although celebrations, events and exhibitions – in all their forms – have been used extensively within anthropology and sociology for multiple purposes. Today, there are entire dissertations focusing on food events, including analyses of different food scapes . The meanings of the “festive and/or affective food scape” in these last writings are multiple and their influence on both individuals and structures should not be underestimated in regards to community building and branding. These works show how certain food festivals thrive in some communities but not in others, and they document the continuing importance of food festivals, both internally and externally, for the hosting communities, as well as their branding of and economic potentials for the hosting city. Food events are legitimized by both social arguments of community building and economic arguments relating more to branding and economic benefits for participating cities. But it is not necessarily the events’ potentials to unite all these well-intended societal/economical intentions,maceteros reciclados de plastico be they based in community, communicative and economic wel-fare and/or reassuring reconciliation between the roles of the consumer and citizen; any surge in planned celebrations and events could also be a sign of what has been labelled a form of neo-localism.
A localism that – paradoxically – might have arisen due to the removal of spatial barriers and the emergence of globalised society: “The elaboration of place-bound identities has become more rather than less important” . Place, and its celebration is, therefore, pursued, valued and marketed more, exactly because its significance, in the traditional sense, is actually vanishing. When you can go anywhere, you want to be somewhere, and somewhere that is perceived as “real.” It should be noted that this form of boosterism using events is not a new phenomenon. In an American context agricultural celebrations and fairs have been used extensively to promote rural places . These events even serving as “feeders” of exhibition materials and activities to the World Fairs, which, arguably, together with the Olympics, have been the events to host for any international metropolis, or those seeking to become one, through the late nineteenth century and most of the twentieth century, and to which we will return. There are several explanations and theories as to the rise of the importance of experiences in most developed countries. Pine and Gilmore mention the structural development that people, in general, have accumulated more expendable income to spend on experiences overall. Experiences and events can therefore be seen as the transitory symptom/symbol of moving from an industrial society to a knowledge/service society. This development of an experience economy is also linked to the commercialization of traditions and “glocalization” of culture coupled with a general broadening in people’s cultural orientation, where individuals are not necessarily limited to one way of life, but can throughout their lives experience and/or consume many different lifestyles. It is sometimes suggested that social interaction and related experiences are on the decline in contemporary society . The bedevilled individualization is often accused of being the main perpetrator of this decline, though studies suggest that neither sociability nor its associated experiences and events are under threat. A larger study by Ingen & Dekker makes the case that many perceptions held about the decline of traditional community pursuits and celebrations is not necessarily due to less sociability, but can be explained, rather, by an increase in informalization processes.
This means that traditional social activities, be they through formal memberships in clubs, associations or otherwise, might be replaced, or supplemented, by more informal settings and occasions that do not require memberships or particular spatial environments, for instance. The decline in – say – bowling memberships can thus be offset by other social interaction less recordable, but not necessarily less sociable. This process of informalization could be viewed as part of a larger social “re-arrangement” where individuals partaking in the “Network Society” find new outlets and forms to interact and express sociability: “Knowledge transfer takes place within defined circuits between different groups and ‘scenes’ in the creative sector. One of the essential requirements of this system is physical spaces where people can meet and validate new cultural forms, or ‘play-grounds of creativity’ such as cafes, squares, museum foyers. These are also the new spaces that are often so attractive to tourists” .Castell’s, himself, is an advocate of networks to further sociability for the individual – though admittedly these expressions will be mostly utilized by already well-connected people, and critical voices are heard as to the nature of such “networking individuals and their sociability”: “The mobility and independence of network nomads who swing from contact to contact and project to project, socially and spatially, without insisting on a consistent self image, is now considered the most valuable asset of human capital” . Increased individualization, or individual freedom, might actually lead to more sociability as expressed through events and other informal spatial arrangements. These might differ slightly or significantly from the form and content of their predecessors of yesteryears, but their use as vehicles of expression and meaning to community and beyond surely remains – though, admittedly, community and associated meanings might also be ontologically different than yesteryears’, if we agree, that we are moving from industrial to knowledge society in the developed world. Urbanization has become coupled with the legitimization of new economic instruments and parameters and their importance, where events and cultural symbols play a determining role, as metropolises compete globally for attention and money through culture-economic initiatives, while midsized cities compete regionally, and so on.
The particular frequency and intensity of urban competition and development might be particular to contemporary society, but using events and experiences to further urbanization is not new. The Olympic Games, for instance, have been used extensively as a “catalyst of urban change” throughout the twentieth century: “What began simply as a festival of sport has grown into an unusually conspicuous element in urban global competition and, for its host cities, a unique opportunity to attract publicity, bring in investment and modernize their infrastructures and images” . And it might not just be commercialization of traditions taking place but also traditionalization, or “culturalization,” of commerce or the mix of worldly and spiritual spheres. Marxists might interpret this next step as the ultimate alienation of man and nature secured through an advanced form of commodity fetishism as exemplified by Debord’s “Spectacle Society” , but its materiality and presence in everyday life is undeniable, and perhaps most illustratively performed at the celebrations and events of our times. Could such developments be due to the merger between citizen and consumer? The blurred lines between citizen/consumer might work to influence both market and non-market,fabrica de macetas plasticas as the market is attached to traditional non-market values and vice versa as is evident in the rise of farmers markets, food co-ops, for instance. It should be noted, however, that the strong division between that of the consumer and citizen could be somewhat of an historical illusion, as the two categories have always transgressed and shared common areas . Again such sharp distinctions could be due to an idealization of the past, whose societies so often are narrated as less complex than present society. Food, and to some degree agriculture, and its associated experiences, carry much significance today, as symbols of the longevity, and dare one say the sustainability of societies and communities in general, and as media and/or vehicles for social change, as well as a symbolic and very real mark of distinction and identity. These observations are in themselves nothing new, as previous literature has proficiently shown that food and its associated experiences have been used in multiple ways . But the particular form and associated expressions and meanings associated with these might be, somewhat, unique to our present times. It is hard not to recognise the influence of the “risk society” in the above themes and the themes they invoke, along, or together, with the perceived negative separation between man and nature that is reminiscent of earlier literature also involving the urban/rural continuum, which suggests real differences between urbanity and rurality , dismisses these differences , or suggests that the urban/rural continuum continues to hold real significance as part of an identification of special rural and urban qualities .
The rural/urban continuum illustrates, perhaps better than anything, the condition of post modernity where “imagined” and/or perceived differences are as important as any “real” measurable differences – indeed reality is guided by perceptions of the “other” and associated places. Due to increased mobility, place should, in theory, matter less, but this does not seem to be the case. The importance of place, and its celebration, can be explained by increasing globalization and homogenization – including cultural commodification and standardization – where global structures are often associated with homogenizing markets and local structures associated with diverse community values, the latter often being perceived as intrinsically better exactly because of its locality or adherence to place. Though literature of historic consumption provides ample examples of how global trade interacts and changes the local , and that viewing the local as a separate entity from the global might be counterproductive and/or naïve. The strongly felt presence of concepts such as authenticity, could be explained due to the, perceived, alienation between man and nature/agriculture generating farmers markets, school gardens etc. to cure ills and provide solutions that have barely been articulated before like eco-literacy or food literacy. Authenticity can, also, provide individuals living under the, perceived, fragmented and illusive condition of post-modernism a re-assurance of their future choices by invoking ties to nature and community, which are seen as good due to their perceived universal/stable/traditional structures. Again this complexity, and the acknowledgement of its existence, can actually strengthen the desire for authenticity. Authenticity within food consumption and places can thus be viewed as an elitist concept that through the appropriation of communal spaces and individual consumption patterns makes opaque the ‘actual’ societal and political structures that guide our food consumption and understanding. But also it could be seen as the first step toward a new way of thinking about food and social systems and food scapes that dares to question the productivist rationale of modernism and its spatial expressions, invoking and awakening a new understanding of, and relation between, the local and global – probably it will do both. This conceptual sentiment of doing both is perhaps the “true” lesson of post-modernism, if we accept its premise. Concepts like authenticity have the thematic potentials to address conflicting messages and provide contradictory explanations to societal issues. Maybe this ability is also mirrored in our materiality of the twenty-first century and the growing acknowledgement that we can produce more of everything for everybody and still – even if it is “only” on a perceptual level – miss that something of the past, imagined or otherwise. The increased individualization might run parallel to an increased socialization. But both are different forms and hold different aspects and experiences than individuality and sociability thirty, or even a hundred years ago. Providing credence to the concept of a universal humanism that is shared, but also one that is provided new meanings and forms by its participants, both good and bad, throughout history. Indeed, and this is the paradox, the mastery and control of nature which is the basis of our modern food systems can be perceived as alienating and unnerving.