Tradisjonsmat - SIFO

Summary
The concept of traditional food* seems to be used more and more frequently and in many
very different contexts, by different actors and for different purposes. This report discusses
and gives examples of how the concept of traditional food is used in the specialist literature
and in the Norwegian public debate. It points out that the concept is used without a clear
definition, as if it is a phenomenon everybody implicitly knows what is. It also emerges that
the concept often has a rhetorical function, in that it is used to highlight particular situated
interests and perspectives. Perhaps this is seen most clearly when it is connected with local
communities, industrial and regional interests. On the whole it is associated with something
positive, either through explicit ties to other positive values (local community, healthy food
etc.) or in that the concept is contrasted with facts that are perceived as negative (such as for
instance ”junk food” or industrial food).
In chapter 2 we examine the use of the concept tradition, so that we better understood the
relationship between the two words ”traditional” + ”food” that make up traditional food. Tradition
refers to an established practice that is transferred from generation to generation, or an
internally handed down heritage. The concept is based on two main axis, viz. 1) time and 2)
cultural customs/know-how. These are interwoven in a meaning dimension that emerges in
the connection between time and culture. These mechanisms are driving forces of societal
change and the dynamic process based on the interplay of transfer, innovation and tradition.
After examining the concept of tradition we shift our focus towards the concept of “traditional
food”. Here we look at how the concept is used in different contexts, such as public documents,
in professional cook publications and in the social studies literature. The nutritional
and regional political discurse dominates in the public documents, whereas the cooks are
more concerned with tradition as a source of food specific renewal. The academic debate
reflects the socio-political history and function, with a focus on identity and mobilisation, where
the collective understanding is central.
In chapter 3 we go through the use of the concept more broadly in the media, as it emerges
in national and regional newspapers and in our own research on consumers’ attitudes and
views on these issues. In this context the concept of traditional food is used within competing
and partly overlapping discourses. The concept is used both of preserving the old and of renewing
oneself, about traditional experience based production methods and scientific methods,
about home made food and industrial production, about crafts and generic products. The
contrasts are numerous, but not always irreconcilable. After a long period of a bulk oriented
food market in this country, it may therefore be argued that a return to traditional food can be
perceived as a renewal, as “old future”.
It appears that some actors are more prominent in some discourses than others. Moreover,
actors may from time to time jump from discourse to discourse. This points back to the complexity
of the concept of traditional food. It must always be understood based on concrete
examples and the contextual framework of which it is an integral part. In this chapter we also
present an ideal type portrayal of the different discourses based on different normative interpretative
frameworks connected with traditional food. We distinguish between 1) a preserving
discourse, where traditional food must be the way it always has been, 2) an innovating dis-