Food, Tradition and Innovation
Mat, tradition och innovation

EXTA85, 7.5 credits, G1 (First Cycle)

Valid for: 2025/26
Faculty: Faculty of Engineering LTH
Decided by: PLED LIV
Date of Decision: 2025-04-11
Effective: 2025-05-05

General Information

Depth of study relative to the degree requirements: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Elective for: KLMT3, MLSA1
Language of instruction: The course will be given in English

Aim

The course deals with the use of food and meals to create meaning. It starts with an introduction to the concepts of tradition, innovation and cultural analysis. The historical development of food culture phenomena is studied. The social context of eating, the meal, serves as a focal point in the course and both everyday and festive occasions, at home as well at other places, are studied. The course also includes an ethnographic field study, including discussions and analyses of methodology and material. It provides students with perspectives on how food culture is a process in constant change.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• provide an account of how cultural meaning is created through food and meals
• account for the concepts of tradition and innovation in relation to food culture
• provide an account of how eating habits are affected by change in areas such as production, processing and trade, and economics, migration and housing in both the past and the present.

Competences and skills
For a passing grade the student must

• complete a minor ethnological field study and collect materials concerning a delimited phenomenon of food culture
• perform a cultural analysis of empirical data based on issues of food, tradition and innovation
• compare the importance of traditions and innovations in both time and space conceived as social environment
• present their own and others' research results in speech and writing.

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

• assess and discuss ethical and democratic aspects of food culture.

Contents

The teaching consists of group assignments, lectures and seminars. The group assignments (approximately one) and seminars (approximately two) are compulsory.

Absence at compulsory components is compensated with an additional question in the individual final written assignment.

Examination details

Grading scale: UG - (U, G) - (Fail, Pass)
Assessment: The assessment is based partly on at least one group assignment that is presented in speech and writing, and partly on an individual take-home exam at the end of the course. The examiner may deviate from the regular form of examination if it cannot be implemented during a re-examination, and if it complies with the learning outcomes of the course.

The examiner, in consultation with Disability Support Services, may deviate from the regular form of examination in order to provide a permanently disabled student with a form of examination equivalent to that of a student without a disability.

Modules
Code: 0121. Name: Food, Tradition and Innovation.
Credits: 7.5. Grading scale: UG - (U, G).

Admission

The number of participants is limited to: 10
Selection: Completed university credits within the programme. Priority is given to students enrolled on programmes that include the course in their curriculum.
Kursen överlappar följande kurser: SASH86

Reading list

• Bardone, Ester 2013: Strawberry Fields Forever? Foraging for the Changing Meaning of Wild Berries in Estonian Food Culture. I: Ethnologia Europaea. Special Issue: Foodways redux (vol. 43:2) ISSN: 1604-3030 (pp. 30-46).
• Belasco, Warren, 2008: Food: The Key Concepts. Oxford: Berg. ISBN: 97818452067341.
• Burstedt, Anna 2013: Luxury Restaurants and Fine Dining: A Discussion about Taste. I: Lysaght, Patricia 2013: The return of traditional food. Lunds Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University. ISBN: 91-7267-357-5 (pp.155-170).
• Böder, Sonja 2013: The Importance of Being Traditional: Local Food between Commercialisation and Symbolic Construction. I: Lysaght, Patricia 2013: The return of traditional food. Lunds Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University. ISBN: 91-7267-357-5 (pp. 180-191).
• Cridland, Meghan 2017: May contain traces of' An ethnographic study of eating communities and the gluten free diet. Lund Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences 15, ISBN: 978-91-983690-3-8 (pp 16-29 & 53-112).
• Frykman, Jonas & Löfgren, Orvar 1996: Introduction: the study of Swedish customs and habits. I: Frykman , Jonas & Löfgren, Orvar 1996: Force of Habit. Exploring Everyday Culture. Lund University Press. (pp. 5-19).
• Jönsson, Håkan 2013a: The Road to the New Nordic Kitchen – Examples from Sweden. I: Lysaght, Patricia 2013: The return of traditional food. Lunds Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University. ISBN: 91-7267-357-5 (pp. 53-67).
• Jönsson, Håkan 2013b: Chef Celebrities, Foodstuff Anxieties and (Un)Happy Meals. An Introduction to Foodways Redux. I: Ethnologia Europaea. Special Issue: Foodways redux (vol. 43:2) ISSN: 1604-3030 (pp. 5-16).
• Klein, Barbro 1990: Plotting boundaries and planting roots: Gardening in a multi-ethnic Swedish town. I: Ehn, Billy 1990 (ed): Working papers on the organization of diversity in Sweden. Tumba : The Swedish Immigration Institute and Museum [Sveriges invandrarinstitut och museum (Invandrarminnesarkivet. Serie A, 1101-5675 ; 2). ISBN: 91-971176-4-1 (pp. 09-22).
• Köstlin Konrad 2013: Sustainability and Fundamentalism. Moral Investment and Culinary Hedonism. I: Lysaght, Patricia 2013: The return of traditional food. Lunds Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University. ISBN: 91-7267-357-5 (pp. 29-40).
• Long, Lucy 2000: Holiday Meals: Rituals of Family Tradition. I: Meiselman, H. L. (2000). Dimensions of the meal: the science, culture, business, and art of eating. Gaithersburg, Md.: Aspen Publishers, Inc, ISBN: 0834216418 (pp. 143-159).
• Lysaght, Patricia 2013: The return of traditional food. Lunds Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University. 91-7267-357-5 (pp 15-26).
• May, Sarah 2013: Cheese, Commons and Commerce. On the Politics and Practices of Branding Regional Food. I: Ethnologia Europaea. Special Issue: Foodways redux (vol. 43:2) ISSN: 1604-3030 (pp. 62-77).
• Miller, Jeff, & Deutsch, Jonathan: 2009: Food studies: an introduction to research methods. Oxford: Berg. ISBN: 9781845206802. (pp. 135-158).
• Petursson, JonThor 2013: Eduardo’s Apples. The Co-Production of Personalized Food Relationships. I: Ethnologia Europaea. Special Issue: Foodways redux (vol. 43:2) ISSN: 1604-3030 (pp. 17-29).
• Scott, Susie 2009: Making Sense of Everyday Life. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN: 978-0-7456-4268-0. (pp 92-115).
• Spalvēna, Astra: Gastronomical Exchange in Soviet Cuisine: On the Example of Latvia. Conference Paper.
• Swahn, Jan-Öjvind 2012: Swedish traditions. Bromma: Ordalaget Bokförlag. ISBN: 978-91-7469-040-8.
• Tanner, Jakob 2004: The arts of cooking: modern times and the Dynamics of tradition. I: Lysaght, Particia 2004: Changing tastes. Food culture and the processes of industrialization. Verlag der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft fur Volkskunde, Basel. ISBN: 3-908122-84-8 (pp. 18-32).
• Wilk, Richard 2006: Fast food/slow food: the cultural economy of the global food system. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press ISBN: 9780759114135.

Contact

Course coordinator: Anna Burstedt, anna.burstedt@kultur.lu.se
Teacher: Charlotte Hagström, charlotte.hagstrom@kultur.lu.se
Teacher: Håkan Jönsson, hakan.jonsson@food.lth.se
Course homepage: https://www.kultur.lu.se/en/course/SASH86