Jón Þór Pétursson | Lund University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jón Þór Pétursson
Ethnologia Fennica
In recent years, references to “old-fashioned pantries” and “classic root cellars” have regularly... more In recent years, references to “old-fashioned pantries” and “classic root cellars” have regularly popped up in real estate ads across Sweden as a potential selling point for people seeking new homes. The use of the words “classic” and “old-fashioned” indicates a shift in the thinking about traditional food storage spaces. In this article, we explore the recontextualization and emotionalization of traditional food storage spaces in Swedish society. We base our analysis on an open-ended questionnaire on food storage, preservation, and household preparedness directed to Swedish households. We investigate how our respondents have recounted and shaped embodied memories in the act of writing about past food storage: the different spaces, times, people, practices, emotions, and objects. Viewing these acts of remembering and writing about past food storage as emotional practices has led to an understanding of how emotional experience in the past is reinterpreted in the present. Seeing these...
Journal of American Folklore, 2022
In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to... more In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to a national food heritage. Skyr is high in protein and low in fat, and its nutritional value accounts for its international success. However, the domestic and international marketing of skyr glide effortlessly from medieval literature to modern healthy living in promoting skyr as a unique, wholesome, and authentic product: heritage food and Iceland's “secret to healthy living.” In this article, we explore how skyr has been recontextualized as heritage through the cultural staging of skyr-making and through branding efforts. It was not until skyr had become a standardized export commodity that people began to fear that action was needed to protect the traditional way of skyr-making. Picking up on the trend of “heritagization,” pioneered by Slow Food (which added skyr to its “Ark of Taste”) and by small farmers catering to tourists, industrial skyr producers have come around to narrati...
Ethnologia Europaea, 2013
This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor h... more This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor his apples. One remarkable paradigm shift when it comes to contemporary food culture is that the product's social, political and cultural entanglements are no longer hidden from view. This new context has created platforms where producers and consumers come together to co-produce. Here, I broaden the concept of co-production to account for the plurality of actors who contribute to engagements with food. My focus is on the online platform where the meaning of Eduardo's apples is co-produced through the immaterial labor of storytelling. Such food storytelling is the secret ingredient that is needed to forge affective bonds between local producers, individual consumers and global food companies.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2018
The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That... more The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That story features humble founders, caring customers, dedicated staff, as well as anonymous investment funds, and it describes the conversion of organics from a niche market to mainstream consumption. Through an ethnographic account of everyday life at the organic store, the article analyzes how intimacy within the modern food chain is established through emotional practices. Staff and customers share feelings of reciprocity, not only towards organic producers, but also towards each other through acts of selling and buying organic products, forming intimate attachment and creating trust to counter the fears and anonymity of the modern food chain. Drawing on theories of affect and emotional practices and combining ethnography with narrative analysis, the article explores the role of emotions and how the doing of emotions makes organic food consumption meaningful within the industrial food system.
RANNSÓKNIR Í FÉLAGSVÍSINDUM XI
Page 159. 149 Lífrænt fólk Jón Þór Pétursson Maðurinn tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtu... more Page 159. 149 Lífrænt fólk Jón Þór Pétursson Maðurinn tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtur heilann ákaft. Loks lítur hann upp og spyr hvort að ég selji svona lífræna dropa til að hressa upp á minnið. Gallinn er einungis sá að hann getur ómögulega munað hvað þeir heita. ...
Food, Culture & Society, 2021
An experiment was carried out at Horticulture Farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensi... more An experiment was carried out at Horticulture Farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from October 2018 to March 2019 to examine the effects of different bulb size viz., large size bulb (15±1 g), medium size bulb (10±1 g), small size bulb (7±1 g) on seed production of two onion varieties (Taherpuri and Kalash Nagari). Significant variation observed in both varieties for most of the parameters based on onion bulb size. The variety Kalash Nagari showed better performances compared to variety Taherpuri. After 60 days of planting, Kalash Nagari variety gave the highest plant height (55.07 cm), number of leaves (20.62), stalk length (100.78 cm), and total seed yield (630 kg ha-1), while in Taherpuri plant height, leaf number, stalk length and total seed weight were 32.21 cm, 6.93, 61.47 cm and 270 kg ha-1 , respectively. Large sized bulb gave better performance compared to small sized bulb. The large sized bulb gave highest plant height (49.83 cm) and highest total seed yield (490 kg ha-1). Medium size bulb gave the seed yield (460 kg ha-1) and lowest in small size bulb (390 kg ha-1). Seed yield was significantly affected by the combined effects of variety and bulb size. Kalash Nagari onion with large sized bulb gave the highest seed yield (660 kg ha-1) and Taherpuri variety with small sized bulb gave the lowest seed yield (180 kg ha-1).
Journal of American Folklore, 2022
In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to... more In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to a national food heritage. Skyr is high in protein and low in fat, and its nutritional value accounts for its international success. However, the domestic and international marketing of skyr glide effortlessly from medieval literature to modern healthy living in promoting skyr as a unique, wholesome, and authentic product: heritage food and Iceland's “secret to healthy living.” In this article, we explore how skyr has been recontextualized as heritage through the cultural staging of skyr-making and through branding efforts. It was not until skyr had become a standardized export commodity that people began to fear that action was needed to protect the traditional way of skyr-making. Picking up on the trend of “heritagization,” pioneered by Slow Food (which added skyr to its “Ark of Taste”) and by small farmers catering to tourists, industrial skyr producers have come around to narrating the cultural history of skyr, employing heritage branding to carve out a unique place within the global dairy-scape. We untangle the messy relationships between the local and the global in such heritage efforts by examining how global trends and markets influence people at local levels, impacting the way they think about and act on their own cultural forms, and how the local level, in turn, impacts global flows under the sign of heritage.
Food, Culture & Society, 2021
The Organic Consumer Association (OCA) in Iceland was established by domestic producers, importer... more The Organic Consumer Association (OCA) in Iceland was established by domestic producers, importers, retailers and consumers. What separated this consumer association from conventional ones was that its founders included both organic producers and “middlemen” (importers, wholesalers and retailers). These same middlemen are often criticized for destroying valuable connections between producers and consumers, but in OCA they worked with producers and consumers toward a common goal. In the article, I deploy the concept of “co-consumption” to analyze how different actors within the contemporary food chain engage with the production and consumption of organic food. “Co-consumption” can be defined as individual and collective efforts to tackle issues within the industrial food system. Such consumption is based on emotional practices that establish relationships between people, products, spaces, and places. So what happens when organic producers and entrepreneurs begin to define themselves as consumers while fighting for increased consumption through the Organic Consumer Association? And what can these encounters between organic producers, middlemen, and consumers tell us about contemporary consumption practices? Drawing on theories of emotion, the article explores the dynamics, frictions, and mutual obligations that drive ethical consumption on a day-to-day basis.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2018
The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That... more The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That story features humble founders, caring customers, dedicated staff, as well as anonymous investment funds, and it describes the conversion of organics from a niche market to mainstream consumption. Through an ethnographic account of everyday life at the organic store, the article analyzes how intimacy within the modern food chain is established through emotional practices. Staff and customers share feelings of reciprocity, not only towards organic producers, but also towards each other through acts of selling and buying organic products, forming intimate attachment and creating trust to counter the fears and anonymity of the modern food chain. Drawing on theories of affect and emotional practices and combining ethnography with narrative analysis, the article explores the role of emotions and how the doing of emotions makes organic food consumption meaningful within the industrial food system.
Ethnologia Europaea, 2013
"This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor ... more "This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor his apples. One remarkable paradigm shift when it comes to contemporary food culture is that the product’s social, political and cultural entanglements are no longer hidden from view. This new context has created platforms where producers and consumers come together to co-produce. Here, I broaden the concept of co-production to account for the plurality of actors who contribute to engagements with food. My focus is on the online platform where the meaning of Eduardo’s apples is co-produced through the immaterial labor of storytelling. Such food storytelling is the secret ingredient that is needed to forge affective bonds between local producers, individual consumers and global food companies.
"
Rannsóknir í félagsvísindum XI, Oct 29, 2010
Konan tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtur heilann ákaft. Loks lítur hún upp og spyr hvor... more Konan tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtur heilann ákaft. Loks lítur hún upp og spyr hvort að ég selji svona lífraena dropa til að hressa upp á minnið. Gallinn er einungis sá að hún getur ómögulega munað hvað þeir heita. Ég reyni að láta lítið bera á brosinu og velti því fyrir mér hvort það sé siðferðilega verjandi að selja henni dropa sem reynslan hefur ekki fullkomlega skorið úr um hvort virka eður ei.
Frá endurskoðun til upplausnar, 2006
Panels, talks, and conference presentations by Jón Þór Pétursson
The aim of the YSWG Conference is to reflect upon the academic, intellectual, and existential con... more The aim of the YSWG Conference is to reflect upon the academic, intellectual, and existential conditions of being young scholars in the fields of Folkloristics, Ethnology, and Anthropology. The Conference will bring together scholars in early stages of their careers: Master and Doctoral students, Postdoctoral researchers, and other interested researchers. The Conference is envisioned as a platform for exchanging experiences and promoting dialogue across national and disciplinary borders, as well as collaborations on both individual and institutional levels.
Ethnologia Fennica
In recent years, references to “old-fashioned pantries” and “classic root cellars” have regularly... more In recent years, references to “old-fashioned pantries” and “classic root cellars” have regularly popped up in real estate ads across Sweden as a potential selling point for people seeking new homes. The use of the words “classic” and “old-fashioned” indicates a shift in the thinking about traditional food storage spaces. In this article, we explore the recontextualization and emotionalization of traditional food storage spaces in Swedish society. We base our analysis on an open-ended questionnaire on food storage, preservation, and household preparedness directed to Swedish households. We investigate how our respondents have recounted and shaped embodied memories in the act of writing about past food storage: the different spaces, times, people, practices, emotions, and objects. Viewing these acts of remembering and writing about past food storage as emotional practices has led to an understanding of how emotional experience in the past is reinterpreted in the present. Seeing these...
Journal of American Folklore, 2022
In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to... more In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to a national food heritage. Skyr is high in protein and low in fat, and its nutritional value accounts for its international success. However, the domestic and international marketing of skyr glide effortlessly from medieval literature to modern healthy living in promoting skyr as a unique, wholesome, and authentic product: heritage food and Iceland's “secret to healthy living.” In this article, we explore how skyr has been recontextualized as heritage through the cultural staging of skyr-making and through branding efforts. It was not until skyr had become a standardized export commodity that people began to fear that action was needed to protect the traditional way of skyr-making. Picking up on the trend of “heritagization,” pioneered by Slow Food (which added skyr to its “Ark of Taste”) and by small farmers catering to tourists, industrial skyr producers have come around to narrati...
Ethnologia Europaea, 2013
This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor h... more This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor his apples. One remarkable paradigm shift when it comes to contemporary food culture is that the product's social, political and cultural entanglements are no longer hidden from view. This new context has created platforms where producers and consumers come together to co-produce. Here, I broaden the concept of co-production to account for the plurality of actors who contribute to engagements with food. My focus is on the online platform where the meaning of Eduardo's apples is co-produced through the immaterial labor of storytelling. Such food storytelling is the secret ingredient that is needed to forge affective bonds between local producers, individual consumers and global food companies.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2018
The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That... more The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That story features humble founders, caring customers, dedicated staff, as well as anonymous investment funds, and it describes the conversion of organics from a niche market to mainstream consumption. Through an ethnographic account of everyday life at the organic store, the article analyzes how intimacy within the modern food chain is established through emotional practices. Staff and customers share feelings of reciprocity, not only towards organic producers, but also towards each other through acts of selling and buying organic products, forming intimate attachment and creating trust to counter the fears and anonymity of the modern food chain. Drawing on theories of affect and emotional practices and combining ethnography with narrative analysis, the article explores the role of emotions and how the doing of emotions makes organic food consumption meaningful within the industrial food system.
RANNSÓKNIR Í FÉLAGSVÍSINDUM XI
Page 159. 149 Lífrænt fólk Jón Þór Pétursson Maðurinn tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtu... more Page 159. 149 Lífrænt fólk Jón Þór Pétursson Maðurinn tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtur heilann ákaft. Loks lítur hann upp og spyr hvort að ég selji svona lífræna dropa til að hressa upp á minnið. Gallinn er einungis sá að hann getur ómögulega munað hvað þeir heita. ...
Food, Culture & Society, 2021
An experiment was carried out at Horticulture Farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensi... more An experiment was carried out at Horticulture Farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from October 2018 to March 2019 to examine the effects of different bulb size viz., large size bulb (15±1 g), medium size bulb (10±1 g), small size bulb (7±1 g) on seed production of two onion varieties (Taherpuri and Kalash Nagari). Significant variation observed in both varieties for most of the parameters based on onion bulb size. The variety Kalash Nagari showed better performances compared to variety Taherpuri. After 60 days of planting, Kalash Nagari variety gave the highest plant height (55.07 cm), number of leaves (20.62), stalk length (100.78 cm), and total seed yield (630 kg ha-1), while in Taherpuri plant height, leaf number, stalk length and total seed weight were 32.21 cm, 6.93, 61.47 cm and 270 kg ha-1 , respectively. Large sized bulb gave better performance compared to small sized bulb. The large sized bulb gave highest plant height (49.83 cm) and highest total seed yield (490 kg ha-1). Medium size bulb gave the seed yield (460 kg ha-1) and lowest in small size bulb (390 kg ha-1). Seed yield was significantly affected by the combined effects of variety and bulb size. Kalash Nagari onion with large sized bulb gave the highest seed yield (660 kg ha-1) and Taherpuri variety with small sized bulb gave the lowest seed yield (180 kg ha-1).
Journal of American Folklore, 2022
In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to... more In recent years, the Icelandic dairy product skyr has been transformed from an everyday staple to a national food heritage. Skyr is high in protein and low in fat, and its nutritional value accounts for its international success. However, the domestic and international marketing of skyr glide effortlessly from medieval literature to modern healthy living in promoting skyr as a unique, wholesome, and authentic product: heritage food and Iceland's “secret to healthy living.” In this article, we explore how skyr has been recontextualized as heritage through the cultural staging of skyr-making and through branding efforts. It was not until skyr had become a standardized export commodity that people began to fear that action was needed to protect the traditional way of skyr-making. Picking up on the trend of “heritagization,” pioneered by Slow Food (which added skyr to its “Ark of Taste”) and by small farmers catering to tourists, industrial skyr producers have come around to narrating the cultural history of skyr, employing heritage branding to carve out a unique place within the global dairy-scape. We untangle the messy relationships between the local and the global in such heritage efforts by examining how global trends and markets influence people at local levels, impacting the way they think about and act on their own cultural forms, and how the local level, in turn, impacts global flows under the sign of heritage.
Food, Culture & Society, 2021
The Organic Consumer Association (OCA) in Iceland was established by domestic producers, importer... more The Organic Consumer Association (OCA) in Iceland was established by domestic producers, importers, retailers and consumers. What separated this consumer association from conventional ones was that its founders included both organic producers and “middlemen” (importers, wholesalers and retailers). These same middlemen are often criticized for destroying valuable connections between producers and consumers, but in OCA they worked with producers and consumers toward a common goal. In the article, I deploy the concept of “co-consumption” to analyze how different actors within the contemporary food chain engage with the production and consumption of organic food. “Co-consumption” can be defined as individual and collective efforts to tackle issues within the industrial food system. Such consumption is based on emotional practices that establish relationships between people, products, spaces, and places. So what happens when organic producers and entrepreneurs begin to define themselves as consumers while fighting for increased consumption through the Organic Consumer Association? And what can these encounters between organic producers, middlemen, and consumers tell us about contemporary consumption practices? Drawing on theories of emotion, the article explores the dynamics, frictions, and mutual obligations that drive ethical consumption on a day-to-day basis.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2018
The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That... more The article tells the story of the rise and fall of the organic store Yggdrasill in Iceland. That story features humble founders, caring customers, dedicated staff, as well as anonymous investment funds, and it describes the conversion of organics from a niche market to mainstream consumption. Through an ethnographic account of everyday life at the organic store, the article analyzes how intimacy within the modern food chain is established through emotional practices. Staff and customers share feelings of reciprocity, not only towards organic producers, but also towards each other through acts of selling and buying organic products, forming intimate attachment and creating trust to counter the fears and anonymity of the modern food chain. Drawing on theories of affect and emotional practices and combining ethnography with narrative analysis, the article explores the role of emotions and how the doing of emotions makes organic food consumption meaningful within the industrial food system.
Ethnologia Europaea, 2013
"This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor ... more "This article tells the modern love story of the organic grower Eduardo and the people who savor his apples. One remarkable paradigm shift when it comes to contemporary food culture is that the product’s social, political and cultural entanglements are no longer hidden from view. This new context has created platforms where producers and consumers come together to co-produce. Here, I broaden the concept of co-production to account for the plurality of actors who contribute to engagements with food. My focus is on the online platform where the meaning of Eduardo’s apples is co-produced through the immaterial labor of storytelling. Such food storytelling is the secret ingredient that is needed to forge affective bonds between local producers, individual consumers and global food companies.
"
Rannsóknir í félagsvísindum XI, Oct 29, 2010
Konan tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtur heilann ákaft. Loks lítur hún upp og spyr hvor... more Konan tvístígur fyrir framan búðarborðið og brýtur heilann ákaft. Loks lítur hún upp og spyr hvort að ég selji svona lífraena dropa til að hressa upp á minnið. Gallinn er einungis sá að hún getur ómögulega munað hvað þeir heita. Ég reyni að láta lítið bera á brosinu og velti því fyrir mér hvort það sé siðferðilega verjandi að selja henni dropa sem reynslan hefur ekki fullkomlega skorið úr um hvort virka eður ei.
Frá endurskoðun til upplausnar, 2006
The aim of the YSWG Conference is to reflect upon the academic, intellectual, and existential con... more The aim of the YSWG Conference is to reflect upon the academic, intellectual, and existential conditions of being young scholars in the fields of Folkloristics, Ethnology, and Anthropology. The Conference will bring together scholars in early stages of their careers: Master and Doctoral students, Postdoctoral researchers, and other interested researchers. The Conference is envisioned as a platform for exchanging experiences and promoting dialogue across national and disciplinary borders, as well as collaborations on both individual and institutional levels.