Vegetarianism or seeking the right foodway: moral standpoints in dialogue

Eating is, at least to some extent, charged with morality and values. As a concrete activity, it is an occasion to link ideas and actions, as well as relating to the world and to others (Mintz, 1996). Far from being merely a physiological question, it is a highly cultural and social part of life (Anderson, 2005). Meat consumption in particular raises value questions, as it supposes the killing of animals (Poulain, 2007). In this presentation, I propose to analyze the discourse produced by people about their meat consumption, or rather, in this case, the non-consumption of meat which is defining for vegetarianism, as a dialogue mobilizing different moral standpoints. The material analyzed comes from interviews focused on food practices and representations. I propose to analyze the development of a vegetarian foodway as a creative construction, involving practices and discourses, in relation with different others and strongly oriented by values, but also questioning and reconstructing these values.

, Ninth International Conference on the Dialogical Self, Lublin, Poland