PhD Graduate Sarah Cappeliez and Professor Josée Johnston published an article in Poetics that explores how cosmopolitanism is expressed through everyday food consumption in Toronto and Vancouver. Based on the lived experience of twenty families, the authors define three different modes of cosmopolitan consumption.
Sarah Cappeliez obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto in 2018. She conducts research comparing North American and European food practices in terms of their cultural, identity and consumption elements. Josée Johnston is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and her general research goal is to advance knowledge in the sociological study of food and consumer culture.
We have posted the article citation and abstract below. The full text is available through the University of Toronto Library Portal here.
Cappeliez, Sarah and Josee Johnston. 2013. "From Meat and Potatoes to “Real-Deal” Rotis: Exploring Everyday Culinary Cosmopolitanism." Poetics, 41(5):433-455.
The purpose of this article is to broaden our understanding of the lived experience of cosmopolitanism and to expand the notion of multiple everyday cosmopolitanisms. Drawing from 40 semi-structured interviews with 20 families living in Toronto and Vancouver, we propose examining cosmopolitanism as a type of cultural repertoire that contains a range of cosmopolitan eating practices. Based on an in-depth reading of these interviews, we map out three modes of cosmopolitan consumption: a knowledge-focussed connoisseur mode, a pragmatic mode centred in lived experiences and social connections, and a tentative mode of engagement with cosmopolitan culture and cuisine. This research questions the idea of cosmopoli- tanism as a homogenous cultural practice or as a purely elite phenomenon. At the same time, we also demonstrate how cultural and economic capital are concentrated in and associated with certain cosmopolitan cultural styles and practices.
Read the full article here.