The Evolution of Household Foodscapes over Two Decades of Transition in Latvia

Abstract

This article traces changes in household food consumption patterns comparing the late Soviet period and the present day based on household interviews and interpretive analysis. We reconstruct and visualize four foodscapes from households of varying socioeconomic contexts, based on their memories of food consumption prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union and their lived experiences of food consumption today. These vignettes are a basis to discuss changes in food consumption patterns in the broader context of transition. This study aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the evolution of food consumption from the perspective of the everyday consumer.

Keywords:

• food consumption
• foodscape
• everyday practices
• consumer
• Latvia

Acknowledgments

We wish to express our thanks to all participants who gave their time generously. This article has benefited from the helpful comments from conference participants, where earlier versions of this article were presented, and from anonymous reviewers. We would like to express special thanks to Pēteris Ručevskis for his assistance with visual design of the household foodscape maps.

Notes

1. We use the term “post-socialist” to define the current status of Latvia and other ex-Soviet bloc countries with caution. Referencing the current period as a function of its relation to its recent past can be problematic and may not adequately acknowledge the deep and varied transformations in economic and social life that former socialist countries have undergone in the last two decades. Furthermore, Olga Shevchenko has made a compelling case for the rejection of this term to describe the current context by arguing that “old socialist traditions, both narrative and pragmatic, were selectively revamped and infused with new life, and new social forms emerged as by-products of people’s efforts to preserve stability” (Shevchenko 2009, 12). It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to engage with the debates of the appropriateness or usefulness of this term today.

2. Our thanks to an anonymous reviewer who called this important point to our attention. For a detailed summary of the discourses around social memory and post-Soviet change (see Rivkin-Fish 2009).

3. Concepts and objects which were important in the past are represented by a dark circular node situated closer to the thematic square node. Those which are important in the present are represented by a light circular node placed further from the thematic square node. In some instances there is no circle, only the label of a concept or object, and in this case the item was described as relevant in the household narrative by virtue of its absence in both the past and present.

4. The lighter colored circles represent actants which have increased in importance in today’s foodscape compared to that of the past whereas the dark gray circles are actants which have decreased in importance. Their degree of change is on a bimodal vertical axis where actants which fall in the central section experienced little or no change (e.g. wild foods), and actants which fall toward the top and bottom of the image experienced a great deal of change (e.g. queuing and availability). Actants sitting toward the far left are not present at all in today’s foodscape, whereas those sitting to the far right are very important in today’s foodscape. Lastly, the size of the circles represents the number of households mentioning each actant and only those actants which were mentioned by at least two households are included.

Additional information

Funding

This study is a part of Marie Curie PUREFOOD project “Urban, peri-urban and regional food dynamics: toward an integrated and territorial approach to food,” EC Grant PEOPLE-2010-INT, 264719, and European Regional Development Fund project “Visualisation tools of dynamic networks”, Grant [2010/0318/2DP/2.1.1.1.0/10/APIA/VIAA/104]. This article does not reflect the opinion of the European Commission.

Notes on contributors

Lani Trenouth

Lani Trenouth is a Marie Curie Early Stage Research Fellow in the PUREFOOD project 2011-2014. She is a doctoral candidate at Wageningen University and is based at the University of Latvia researching alterity in food systems and food consumption practices using visual research methods in Latvia.

Talis Tisenkopfs

Talis Tisenkopfs is Professor of Sociology at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the Baltic Studies Centre. He is an independent expert on agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) at DG Research, author of scientific articles and literary sociological essays. His current interests include rural and regional development, agri-food chains, innovation, knowledge brokerage.