Abstract
In a meal, there is a special sort of correspondence between diverse functions of knowledge taking place, a correspondence which also connects participants of the meal to a wider societal context. The interdisciplinary academic discipline of Culinary Arts and Meal Science (CAMS) at Örebro University can be described as thematically demarcated, with the meal as its main theme, justifying a broad scientific approach. In this article we shed light on how the philosophy of science of CAMS has developed during the discipline’s first three decades of existence. Starting out from a point of view of three separate forms of knowledge: science, artistic endeavor and practical skills, we see a development towards a point of view of three corresponding functions of knowledge: episteme, techne and phronesis. In this paper, we argue that an interdisciplinary discipline calls for such a correspondent, or functional, point of view. Our thesis is that such an approach points towards a greater methodological focus, which is also beneficial for highlighting how the outcome of CAMS is about knowing together in correspondence with the wider societal context. We illustrate how these functions are active by presenting a model. The analysis is based on examples from the academic activities of CAMS during the last three decades. We conclude that CAMS has the potential to be particularly strong as a social force in educating competence and skills and judgments and approach. The latter, also known as phronesis or bildung, encompasses important ethical, sustainable and conscious dimensions. These are competences that are particularly significant in order to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s society. Therefore, we argue for the social importance of meal research for societal knowing together, and for the meal as an operative stage for bildung.
Keywords
Culinary Arts; Gastronomy; Interdisciplinary; Methodology; Education
DOI
https://10.21606/eksig2019.115
Citation
Östergren, D.,and Jonsson, I.(2019) Knowing Together in Correspondence: The Meal as a Stage for Bildung, in Nithikul Nimkulrat, Kristi Kuusk, Julia Valle Noronha, Camilla Groth and Oscar Tomico (eds.), Knowing Together – experiential knowledge and collaboration, 23–24 September 2019, Tallinn, Estonia. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2019.115
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Knowing Together in Correspondence: The Meal as a Stage for Bildung
In a meal, there is a special sort of correspondence between diverse functions of knowledge taking place, a correspondence which also connects participants of the meal to a wider societal context. The interdisciplinary academic discipline of Culinary Arts and Meal Science (CAMS) at Örebro University can be described as thematically demarcated, with the meal as its main theme, justifying a broad scientific approach. In this article we shed light on how the philosophy of science of CAMS has developed during the discipline’s first three decades of existence. Starting out from a point of view of three separate forms of knowledge: science, artistic endeavor and practical skills, we see a development towards a point of view of three corresponding functions of knowledge: episteme, techne and phronesis. In this paper, we argue that an interdisciplinary discipline calls for such a correspondent, or functional, point of view. Our thesis is that such an approach points towards a greater methodological focus, which is also beneficial for highlighting how the outcome of CAMS is about knowing together in correspondence with the wider societal context. We illustrate how these functions are active by presenting a model. The analysis is based on examples from the academic activities of CAMS during the last three decades. We conclude that CAMS has the potential to be particularly strong as a social force in educating competence and skills and judgments and approach. The latter, also known as phronesis or bildung, encompasses important ethical, sustainable and conscious dimensions. These are competences that are particularly significant in order to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s society. Therefore, we argue for the social importance of meal research for societal knowing together, and for the meal as an operative stage for bildung.