Politics of Meaning in Categorizing Innovation: How Chefs Advanced Molecular Gastronomy by Resisting the Label
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April 12, 2019
- ISIDORE Id: 10670/1.9d58e6...
- hal: hal-02117655
- doi: 10.1177/0170840619835268
HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société - notices sans texte intégral
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1177/0170840619835268
Keywords
categorization haute cuisine innovation innovators labeling politics of meaning social semioticsSimilar subjects
Political thought Government Political theory Civil government Commonwealth, The Science, Political Administration PoliticsCite this document
Barbara Slavich et al., « Politics of Meaning in Categorizing Innovation: How Chefs Advanced Molecular Gastronomy by Resisting the Label », HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société - notices sans texte intégral, ID : 10.1177/0170840619835268
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Abstract
This study examines innovators’ efforts to conceptualize and communicate their novel work through categorization. Specifically, we view category formation as a controversial process of meaning making, which we theorize through the concept of “politics of meaning” and operationalize through a social semiotics approach. By analyzing the labeling controversies underlying a new culinary style publicized as “molecular gastronomy”, we find that innovators’ efforts at categorization unfold along four consecutive stages: experimenting with a new style, communicating the new style, contesting the dominant label, and legitimating the category meaning. Our study suggests that a new category’s dominant label can substantially deviate from the innovators’ intended denotations, yet nonetheless bring that category forward by triggering public negotiations around its meaning, which lead to categorical deepening and legitimation. By putting forward a “politics of meaning” view on categorizing innovation, this work advances our understanding of the connection between labeling and category formation in the context of innovation.
