Description
A central task of this paper is to challenge static notions of belonging and threat construction for academics and practitioners. The project is a relational sociological account of how (in)security, food, space, and identity intersect in particular ways through narrative, discourse, and language. How do processes of boundary construction contribute to some us/them meanings over others at different points in time? By positioning food, beverage, and sites of consumption as central to how we make sense of international politics, we can better understand the ways in which spatial and temporal dimensions of boundaries and borders may be helping or hindering security. This paper focuses on three case studies looking at food, identity, and security (Corsica, Northern Ireland, and Quebec). Each of these cases has a particular context of conflict, violence, language, sovereignty, and identity that can teach academics and practitioners about the shaping power of language and boundary drawing. More specifically, how food as an empirical vehicle can help illustrate philosophy of science debates on identity construction, methodological discussions on interpretivism and discourse, and societal debates on belonging, and how to challenge exclusionary boundary drawing that can foment insecurity rather than security.
