Methodological Innovations 2011
A Picnic in the Field;
negotiating the presentation of the self in
researcher/respondent relationships during
asynchronous on-line interviews about food –
a reflexive and auto/biographical account.
a picnic
 ‘When we enter a field we make footprints on the
land and are likely to disturb the environment.
When we leave we may have mud on our shoes,
pollen on our clothes. If we leave the gate open
this may have serious implications for farmers and
their animals. All of this is relevant to what we find
out about the field and its inhabitants. Thus, when
doing research (fieldwork) we need to be sensitive
to respondents and the relevance of our own
presence in their lives and the research process’
 Letherby (2003:06)
a picnic
 1. n. an outing or excursion including a packed meal
eaten out of doors. 2. any meal eaten out of doors or
without preparation, tables, chairs, etc., (usu. with neg.)
colloq. 3. Something agreeable or easily accomplished
etc., (it was no picnic organizing the meeting)
 US. 2. garden party, barbecue, cookout. 3. Child’s
play, colloq. pushover, cinch, piece of cake, esp. US
colloq. 5. (no picnic) torture, agony. colloq,. a pain in
the neck, esp. US sl. pain in the butt, difficult arduous,
torturous, agonizing, painful, disagreeable, tough, hard,
rough, unpleasant
 The Reader’s Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder, (1993) OUP,
Oxford
From: Echo & Narcissus, by Waterhouse, J.W. (1903), Oil on
Canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Introduction
Our relationship with food and eating tends to be explored
through an analysis of weight management issues with a clear
focus on gender difference. Bordo (2003) and Howson (1999)
for example clearly associated female identity with the body
and sexuality. Lupton (1998) also highlighted the extent to which
“femininity revolves around being highly interested in the
attractiveness (slimness) of one’s body as well as health.” For
her “the discourse of women’s obsession with food and dieting
was also constantly articulated in popular culture” (1998:110).
“food has been given dichotomous attributes such as ‘good’ or
‘bad’, ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’, people attach emotions to
food and use it to define who they are” Germov (2004:18)
Social Change
The NHS Information Centre published statistics last year
suggesting that 2.7 million people in the country have some kind
of disordered eating and men make up a quarter. This is a
significant rise from the figure of 10 to 15 per cent of cases only
ten years ago.
Auto/Biography
The analytic idea of auto/biography is concerned
with “the myriad of everyday and frequently
fleeting social practices concerned with the
articulation of (often competing, sometimes
discontinuous) notions of ‘selves’ and ‘lives’.”
Stanley (2000:40)
“an epistemologically oriented concern with the
political ramifications of the shifting boundaries
between self and other, past and present in
writing and reading, fact and fiction… the
researcher and author are very much alive as
agents actively at work in the textual production
process.” Autobiography Study Group 1995
Method
My PhD will focus on the role of food in individual
life histories. The data will be gathered through in
depth, on-line, asynchronous e-mail interviews
with an opportunity sample of men and women.
For Kozinets (2010) it is possible through the e-mail
interview to establish a ‘sense of intimacy’ with
respondents. It shares this attribute with
correspondence techniques outlined by Letherby
& Zdrowski (1995), which allow “a greater degree
of confidentiality; the research subjects feel less
exposed as people if they write rather than speak
to a researcher.” (585)
http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/2736_eating_disorders-not_just_a_female_issue
Do we nurture an emotional relationship with food throughout
the life course, based on cultural ideals on what constitutes a
healthy body size and lifestyle? Are we all “hyper-cartesian”
bodies made to choose to monitor our own body weight?
Malson (2008).
Julie Parsons
Lecturer in Sociology of Health & Illness
School of Social Science & Social Work
Faculty of Health
Bordo, S (2003) 2nd Ed., Reading the Slender Body, Body Politics: Women
and the Discourses of Science, London, Routledge
Germov, J. & Williams, L. (2004) 2nd Ed., Sociology of Food & Nutrition; the
Social Appetite , OUP, Oxford
Howson, A. (2004) The Body in Society: An Introduction, Cambridge, Polity
Press
Kozinets, R.V., (2010) Netnography, Doing Ethnographic Research Online,
London, Sage
Leatherby, G., & Zdrodowski, D. (1995) “Dear researcher”, the use of
correspondence as a Method within Feminist Qualitative Research,
Gender & Society, Vol., 9, No., 5 (oct 1995) pp 576-593
Lupton, D., (1998), Food, the Body & the Self, London, Sage
Malson, H., (2009) Deconstructing un/Healthy Body-weight and Weight
Management, in Riley, S., Burns, M., Frith, H., Wiggins, S., Markula, P., (eds)
Critical Bodies: representations, Identities & Practices of Weight
Management, Basingsstoke, Palgrave
Stanley, L., (2000) from Cosslett, T., Lury, C., & Summerfield, P., (eds)
Feminism and Auto/biography, Texts, Theories, Methods, London,
Routledge
no picnic – ethics 20/09/2010
 You are being asked to be a participant/volunteer in
a research study for my PhD
 Food choice & Identity: To investigate the relationship
between individuals and their food choice using an
auto/biographical research approach.
 The purpose of this research is to examine the role of
food in individual life histories. The study will involve a
series of e-mail ‘interviews’ between the researcher
and respondent. This may take place over a number
of days or weeks, depending on your availability to
participate.
an invitation
 If you decide to be part of this study, your participation will
involve: -
 Consenting to be interviewed by way of an exchange of e

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mails.
The interview will consist of en e-mail exchange over a
timescale to suit.
The interview will focus upon your individual life history and
personal experiences relating to food and eating both past
and present.
You will be encouraged to identify themes around food and
eating that are of interest to you.
The e-mail interview will be saved anonymously for future
reference as part of my PhD and academic purposes as
above.
ethics – 25/11/2010
 Your participation in this study is voluntary and you are under no

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

obligation to participate in this study.
You have the right to change your mind and leave the study at
any time without giving any reason and without any penalty,
upon which all personal information will be immediately
destroyed.
Any new information that might make you change your mind
about being in the study will be provided to you.
If you have an eating disorder you are strongly advised not to
participate in this research.
If you consent to participate in this research then please reply to
this e-mail.
All our future e-mail correspondence will be done through a
specific e-mail address ourfoodstories@gmail.com
beginnings
 What I'm really after is your 'food story'.
Perhaps, this will include your earliest
food memories, favourite foods,
memorable food occasions, whether
your eating habits have changed over
time and why this may be. Also,
absolutely anything food related that
you'd like to share with me.
SILENCE
beginnings
 25th November - 16th December – Drew
 ‘food as you may or may not know is something that I
have become passionate about and certainly my
relationship with food has changed through my life…’
 25th November - 24th January – Barry
 ‘The blind optimism of youth and the determination to
cook like a god. The meal was memorable for the fact
that she was still there at breakfast and the startling
realisation that one could get pleasure form cooking. I
have unfortunately, worn the dinner on occasions since
then, but like to think it was not a criticism of the food…’
SILENCE
more beginnings
 5th January – 17th January – Ellie
 ‘In the beginning was the 1950’s – a widowed mother
who told me she was weaning me when my father died,
so I believe I was weaned on tears…’
 17th January – 20th January – Ophelia
 ‘Food played a big part in my early childhood in the
early 1960’s partly because I do remember being hungry
a lot… but and in spite of, always being starving at
teatime, the monotony of beans on toast, marmite
sandwiches or fishfingers for tea day after day grated
when I knew my mother was a brilliant cook… but she
never cooked her ‘grown up food’ for us…’
more …
 5th January – 6th January – Betty
 ‘This really got me thinking. My earliest memory of food
must have been when I was five or under as I remember
my father showing me how to make a pie out of all of the
food on my plate. You mash it all up together with a fork,
but you can leave the peas whole if you like to make the
pie look prettier. He made it in to a pie shape then I
could pretend it was a cake and cut it in to slices and
eat it, it was fun. When I told my mum this years later she
was surprised because she said he was a stickler for good
table manners, so maybe he showed me when she
wasn’t around. He did like to play. He died when I was
five so I can place my memories in a timeline easily…’
beginning again…
 7th January – 20th January – Juliet
 Will be happy to help. And, I have a love-hate relationship to food, it
is my biggest 'issue' in life, as probably it is with many people. So, it
should be interesting. Will you reflect back too?
 It is not a huge problem to me, don't worry. It is just a big topic in a
way, because food is so important and yet so hard to 'manage'. But I
am learning to manage it in my way, so I'd like to participate. It
would just be helpful for me to also know what you discover! That
way I might learn something too.
 I am not sure what you mean. Do you want me to start writing a food
autobiography all by myself? In that case it will be something I will
plan in on the long term, because I am very busy right now and my
attention is very scattered, so I need to focus and not take on
another project. If you want to know something about me and my
food stories sooner, it is better to pull out a questionnaire, then I do
not have to give it a lot of thought, ie how to structure, etc. Writing
an autobiography is a nice idea, but right now it would pull me out
of my priorities.
and again continued
 Still not 100% sure what you mean with collecting stories.
Do you want me to keep a diary? Or write about food
as a child? It is a big thing in my family, but I doubt there
are many stories I could find written by me about what
food means to me. Can you clarify a bit what you want
for your purposes?
 Another thing which is quite peculiar is that I am very
sensitive to the intention with which food is made. If
there is a social gathering where there is bad energy my
stomach refuses. I guess in London a lot of food is
addiction food that I buy into, but my liver revolts. My
parents food at home was full of love and care and it
always made me happy! So did the countryside food at
the *** *****!
numbers
 Target (November 2010):  60 on-line asynchronous interviews by June 2011
 Men
 Invitations = 53
Women
Invitations = 101
 Accepted = 29 (55%)
Accepted = 55 (54%)
 Declined = 2
Declined = 5
 Attended = 18 (62%)
Attended = 35 (64%)
endings…
 I enjoyed participating and wish you all the best with your
analysis especially the emotional side of it all :)
 I agree that women seem to be left to the mundane
cooking while men get to do the fun stuff, though I think
there may be a generational element to this as
well. Anecdotally, my dad never stepped into a kitchen or
fired up a barbecue for that matter. After retirement he
figured out how to use the microwave to heat up the food
my mom'd left him for the day!! My brother-in-law, cooks
really well, but usually only for special occasions, with my
sister (who hates to cook) making meals for the week on a
Sunday at a push. I find that with my partner the mundane
roles are shared, but he didn't grow up in that
environment (his mother does everything) and he often
looks to me for 'the last word'. Yesterday he made
breakfast, and we cooked dinner together. (Bethany
16/04/2011)