Imagining Self and the Other

Abstract

This paper tests the hypothesis that dominant representations of the national Self in both France and the United States frame collective discussions and individual strategies vis-à-vis our foods and food practices. This hypothesis is built on the idea that when responding to the perceived loss of diversity and identity associated with globalization, people in both France and the United States participate in the reinforcement or (re)invention of social and cultural identities, and among them national identity; and that food and the practices associated with it, play a dynamic role in this process. To test this hypothesis, we developed the following pair of questions and asked 170 people in France and the United States to respond to them: “Imagine that your main goal is to eat well. Now, imagine that you could move to any other place – near of far – or any other time period – past, present or future. Where would you go? Why? Where would you definitely not want to go? Why?” In our analysis, we concentrate on how people situate themselves in “space” and consider dominant representations of the national Self in conjunction with those of the national Other. Our analysis reveals the dominance of the key cultural construct of gastronomy and its association with the region in France and the idea of choice and its association with the national space in the United States. In a final analysis, we consider the extent to which such representations might reflect mental maps of globalization in both these countries.