Carnival for change: involving consumers in food systems issues by challenging stereotypical media representations using arts-based methods

Abstract

Recently, the role of civil society in shaping food systems has been increasingly recognised, as has the role of active ‘food citizens’ who take political and practical responsibility for transforming food systems. However, consumers still play a rather passive role in conventional value chains and, due to limited direct interaction with producers, stereotypical and nostalgic representations of agriculture and food in the mass media can hinder people’s active participation in food issues. In this article I use Bakhtin’s concept of ‘carnival’ to introduce an arts-based method – the Reflective Photobooth – that uses such stereotypical media images as a resource to challenge representations of food and farming and by doing so thus hopefully motivate people to engage in food-related issues. For the case study of Austrian organic farming, I show how two advertising campaigns created stereotypical and nostalgic images of this movement and discuss how such representations could hinder rather than encourage active engagement of the audience. Based on these findings, I organised two Reflective Photobooth workshops in which participants joyfully played with the stereotypical media images in a series of re-enactments. This ‘carnival’ led to critical reflections and discussions on the media representations and on Austrian organic agriculture. The Photobooth is certainly not a silver bullet for changing participants’ food practices, but the findings provide new ideas for promoting critical reflection on dominant discourses about food and agriculture and inform us about how ‘carnival’ could be used to engage people in food system issues and promote food citizenship.