«Food and I» – experimenting with citizen science by using oral history in food studies

The aim of this paper is to throw light on the use of oral history as a methodological approach in food studies. Oral history is a field of study and a method(odology) in historiographic research that organizes collections of living peoples' statements about their own lives and experiences. In this paper we present a method to potentially democratize knowledge production, using food studies as an example. This includes an original way to recognize new data sources and collect them through the principles of oral history. We will involve two projects on food that will enable us to open toward a reflection about possibilities and limits linked to oral history in food studies. First, we will present oral history as a relevant method for food studies. We will then introduce the projects "Food and I" and "Food2gather" that constitute our empirical references. We will discuss the experimental way of democratizing knowledge production and reflect upon the legitimacy of actively engaging lay people as both interviewers and narrators. In a fourth part we will reflect on the researchers' possibilities of using oral history to gain insight into how people relate to each other through food consumption, and sharing of skills and knowledge.