URBNANCE Blog

Intra-View Revelations: A Contemplative Journey into Human-Food Resonance in Public Canteens

As researchers we have long been supposed to remain neutral, objective, and somehow distant to the things, the people, the environments, basically the entities and materialities we are investigating. However, also recognized by more and more scholars, this is neither an easy task nor is it precisely necessary or possible. The world we are living in and the societies which shape and surround us are complex and intertwined. Whatever research topic I plan to approach – my entire being will influence how I approach the topic. How I operationalize, analyze and finally also present the research is inevitably entangled with my cultural and societal backdrop, my own convictions and beliefs but also depending on my day to day wellbeing.

The influential becoming whilst being

The dilemma of being subjective in a world that expects objectivity fizzles out in the intra-view method, where subjectivity is explicitly desired. Without diving too deep into the theoretical backdrop of intra-views and the underlying concept of intra-action, a short explanation on what lies behind the phrasing of intra might be necessary. In comparison to commonly conducted interviews it is not only the two (or more) people in conversation who are of interest. Rather, it is the different entangled materialities that come into the equation. Those are essentially everything and everyone that are involved in the conversation and the practices experienced and focused on. I thereby see a strong connection between the resonance theory and the method of intra-views. In the way of resonance we have to be open to be affected, we should listen up to the world to come into action, to transform and to build resonant relations in terms of a good life. In my research I explicitly focus on urban human-food resonance. Accepting thereby the agency of all materialities through the conduction of intra-views follows my intention to listen up to food in general, to the people who produce and serve food, to the once who eat it but also to the places where food materializes such as public canteens for instance. By doing so, external and internal relations between human and the more-than-human world in the context of human-food relationships can be taken into account

After the focus groups – the first project of my PhD – I therefore decided to conduct said method to further explore human-food resonance. During those intra-views I had lunch with willing strangers in two different public canteens eating together, talking about food, and their relation with it as well as the canteens themselves. The goal was to examine the resonating and alienating qualities of those places. In how far can such places support or hinder us in experiencing resonating moments with food? Do those places enable us to live or establish resonant relations with food? What influence does the person have on developing human-food resonance in terms of internalized values, worldviews, habits, daily moods etc.? And, to what extent can these findings help to promote sustainable food relationships or leave unsustainable relations behind? In this case, the production of data did not only occur through the human beings talking and eating with each other. Additionally, it was also the food we ate and the canteen environment around us, the people who worked there, ate there with us, the noises, the lights, the furniture, etc.

In this special occasion, the researchers are encouraged to sharpen their senses to not only listen, and to ask questions but also to notice their surroundings. Therefore, I would like to share my experiences in this essay. Basically I would like to reflect how I felt before, during and after the various intra-views including the difficulties and the fun within it. I conducted the intra-views in the early summer of 2023. The research approach was to meet the person outside of the canteen, tell them what we are doing, go inside together, chose something to eat, eat together, and say our goodbyes. I planned to talk and eat with the participants for maximum an hour, to observe the places in passing, to not only ask for the persons’ state of mind but also to maybe try and read their body language. You might think that this sounds already like quite a lot and I think that was one of the main feelings I had as well – this sounds exhausting!

Being a PhD researcher not having too much experience, I definitely felt nervous before each and every intra-view. Even though I consider myself quite the chatty person not having too many problems to keep conversations going with strangers it felt rather odd to share such an intimate practice. Eating food – what an experience! Everything about it seems so personal, the choice of meal, adhering to some kind of table manners, the conversations in between. To top everything off I had to keep track of my interview protocol, the observational cues I prepared for myself, running around with a microphone and a recorder, etc.  Besides, I was also 7 months pregnant, naturally exhausted and tired from time to time. Nevertheless, the nervousness was always accompanied by a certain excitement. The method felt so new, different and explorative to what I have read in so many papers. Even though conducting intra-views appears to me as an overwhelming task, I often found myself thinking if I really want to catch the in-betweens, research might just have to be complex and excessive.

Some beautiful moments

As experienced in the focus groups as well and after shaking off the initial nervousness, many of the conversations were really fascinating. As in normal life, with some people one might find it easier to talk and to connect and this was not different during the intra-views. With one of the interviewees I made a connection through the upcoming journey of motherhood. She – a mother herself – talked a lot about how her relation to food had changed since she also had to consider her children’s dietary preferences. With another interviewee I connected through the canteen we visited. I was a student at the University of Dresden myself and visited the respective canteen quite often. We chatted about the change in the menu, how different eating there feels when you go with a group or when you´re just by yourself and also how the different seasons change the experience. A refugee in cold winters, but a hot and stuffy endeavor in summer. With one of the interviewees I had a deeper conversation about veganism, what are the challenges in daily life but also by eating out and specifically about eating in public canteens.
Moreover, I experienced many reflective moments myself. Going into public canteens and eating there was mostly a passive act I came to realize. I never truly recognized what exactly made me like or dislike the place in terms of atmosphere. The menu itself and what it had to offer was always quite important for me but paying attention to the places different materialities, how they come together and make it a welcoming experience, I never actively recognized. This feeling I did also notice within the conversations with my participants. Most often, they shared their own recognition of old but newly found sensations during their lunch experiences at the end of the intra-view. One interviewee for instance developed a greater appreciation towards the lavish selection of well composed meals. Another one gained appreciation for the friendly and courteous staff. This gave me the impression that they too benefited from this practice in one or the other way. 

Some challenging moments

Of course, I did not experience every intra-view in the manners I just described above. As mentioned, conversations can be more or less fruitful depending on the two humans which meet and which are embedded into and influenced by certain interweaving external and internal relations. This left me with a few more difficult encounters. That said, feelings of discomfort were mostly associated with the people in conversation and not necessarily with the food or the place itself. Especially when political convictions came into play I felt a great unease since most of the time when this happened, I found myself confronted with strongly conservative and right-wing political views touching the topics of climate change denial associated with the bashing of green political parties or the topic of EU-exist for instance. Besides being compelled by those thoughts myself, such statements do also not align with the prevailing scientifically known damage of climate change as well as the opposition of the city Dresden against right-wing radicalism. In those situations, I honestly felt helpless in the sense on how to execute the methods deeper meaning. How was I supposed to be an active entity within the conversation, if however I also knew that a discussion about such political convictions would have likely led to the termination of the intra-view and with that the lost of the desired data? That said, I did not always feel confident and eloquent enough to make my point and still keep the conversation running.

Closely associated with this sensation were further disputes with the interviewees touching on my own worldviews, values and the respective convictions I hold, especially around the topic of meat consumption. Even though interesting for the data and analysis, I could not say that recognized indifferences towards the impact of meat consumption concerning the world but especially the animals made it easy for me. Another striking experience occurred when one of the interviewees asked me to have a look on my notes. I do not know if it is also common in normal interviews to allow such a request within the moment, but going with the flow was a necessity. Unfortunately, I forgot what I had already written, including a comment on the interviewees’ nervousness, fast speech and confusion. The person read this to me, and I immediately felt myself blushing, only to immediately feel relieved when they actually confirmed my observation. It seems that some uneasy experiences can actually turn entirely into something else and I guess that is also the charm of intra-views. Finally, I found it most challenging to keep up with everything. Noticing the body language, staying focused on my research goal, provoking conversation where there was none, observing the room, the other people, my own mood and feeling. This impression left me with the overarching question: What have I missed?

Some final words

The described ups and downs are probably – at least to a certain degree – common for every kind of interview. However, it still is my aim to capture those experiences in an intra-active manner and to make them part of the analysis. I suppose that this will be the most challenging part of the upcoming research phase. I was glad that I actually had arrived earlier and stayed longer before and after each intra-view. With this I could at least try to intercept observational information concerning the place, myself and all the other involved entities. That said, a final conclusion on the practicability of this method is at this moment hard to draw. But I can definitely say that it was fun and exciting as well as difficult and from time to time also challenging. What remains is a reinforced conviction that methods should be more relational and complex to try and capture all the entangled influences of the involved materialities.

Author: Mabel Ramisch
If you have any comments or question on the essay, feel warmly invited to contact the author (m.ramisch @ioer.de).