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Abstract
As a marker of regional identity, heritage remains a complex field of inquiry. The discussion proposed here will use food to investigate the process of heritage construction or ‘heritagisation’ as an important issue for rural tourism promotion. If food today is considered to be a locus of inter-cultural exchange that contributes to the construction of social identities, then it could also be considered as an important resource for rural development strategy. As it is also strongly associated with the tourism sector, gastronomic heritage, in its forms of construction and mobilisation, calls into question the social and cultural dynamics of a given space. The objective of this discussion is twofold and will treat the notion of heritage as a social construct and as a resource for action. We will attempt to answer the following question: At what point can heritage become a resource and component of professional opportunities? To what extent does this prove to be undeniably subject to the process of local ownership? Methodological note: I emphasise that this discussion, which results from a study of three rural regions in France, will attempt to formally and objectively posit a means of comprehending the process of heritage creation.
Notes
We are referring in particular to the inventory works of regional culinary heritages led in France by the National Council of Culinary Arts in the 1990s.
The sole presence of the Roquefort cheese as an emblematic promoted resource can be explained by its economic wealth which inhibates, supersedes and paralyses the emergence of diversified initiatives.
Additional information
Jacinthe Bessiere is an associate professor in sociology at the University of Toulouse II (France, UE). She is a member of CERTOP (Center of Study and Research Work, Organization and Rules UMR-CNRS 5044) and teaches at ISTHIA (Institute of Tourism, Hospitality and Food). She holds a master's degree in tourism management and in sociology (DEA) from the University of Toulouse. In 2000, she received her PhD in rural sociology from the same university. Her research activities are at the crossroads of the sociology of tourism and the sociology of development. She seeks, through the study of food heritage, to understand the processes and mechanisms of development in rural areas. Her research focuses on the process of heritagisation, analysed as a social construct at the crossroads of tourism and food issues.