I was on an airplane browsing through a recent Inculture report when a curious/friendly co passenger leaned over my shoulder and asked: “Do you work with ecological food?” The report-title included the term “ecological” so the question wasn’t too far-fetched. I found myself nodding, not in the mood to explain anthropology (hmm) whereupon he started to inform me about his eating habits. He precede by telling me that he gave his children Rosehip soup (nyponsoppa), something that caught my attention since I, just the other day, found a packet of dry powder rosehip soup mix in my kitchen (that expired in 2007) thinking: “Hmm, in all of my household studies I have never seen anyone mix a dry powder rosehip soup. I have to ask my coworkers about this.” So… I asked the man about his relationship to Rosehip soup where upon he asked me if I thought it was unhealthy to give this soup to children since I asked so many questions. I told him that I had no idea (and that I hope it’s good since my generation grew up on it) and that I am actually not a food expert of any kind. He sighed relieved explaining that the only reason he had gone on about his food habits was that he had gotten a bad “eating” conscious when he thought that this was my field of expertise. So my question is, has this moral food panic gone too far when people feel obliged to give an account for and justify their eating habits to strangers?

Of all the studies we have done I have never been so puzzled by the one that examined the question above. Food is a cultural and contextual matter and when you have the luxury of making choices on what to eat, “good food” is one of the most flexible, negotiable and unfixed phenomenon we ever came across.  Ecological food means so much more than caring for one’s personal health or the local/global environment but whith that said I would like to quote one of our younger informants. “Ecological food is good food, right? But, I forgot exactly what it was good for.”

Hellen spends 10 minutes to find the perfect mango.

Crazy, but very relevant. You see, we’ve been doing fieldwork for Vägverket focusing on getting a holistic view of the total experience of driving in relation to road quality. When I was presenting the study yesterday, one of the Research Analysist said: “It is so weird. I have been analyzing details within this field for a life time, but when I read your report, I felt like ´Yes, this is how it is´.” Obviously he was victim for the complex question above. I told him that we have that response quite often from our clients. So the answer to the question above is: If you want to know what you didn’t know you knew or if you want to know when you know that what you knew was what you wanted to know – you probably have to hire us. Anyone up for the challenge? Just give us a call.

When holding a MA-seminar in commercial anthropology one of the students had beforehand submitted a paper titled: Krakschi jidolucka medigi Anthropology? The need of translation for normal people. Outside the academic world (some times inside as well) this field is sort of a mystery – you’ve heard about it in relation to non-profit organizations, exotic fieldwork, and so on. But there’re still questions, so let me “translate”.

Cultural/Social Anthropology is the study of us as cultural and social human beings. We strive for a “holistic” understanding and broad perspective in order to discover the world through ours and other’s eyes. We do not judge, we understand. This is the fuel for Commercial Anthropology. Through participant observation, interviews and cultural analysis we understand consumer behavior. With that in-depth information we also must have morals and principals. Our training incorporate ethics, self-reflection as well as skills. All in all – we are genuinely interested in people and the power of social and cultural communities.

*The title is stolen from a student paper. MA-course, Commercial Anthropology, Högskolan Dalarna.

Even if most of us aspire reflection (for instance relating recent experiences to earlier ones in order to produce more complex thoughts), we sometimes get stuck in old discourses giving us the wrong food for thoughts. Strategies, questions, are being formulated and framed on the basis of this misleading (maybe obsolete) knowledge.

I have recently been doing fieldwork to understand why people’s behaviors are in disagreement with their answers on questionnaires. It´s much more complicated than stating that the wrong questions are being asked. It’s about scrutinizing discourses that formulated the questionnaire in relation to what truly is regarded as meaningful issues today.

Anyone else who had tears in their eyes when Uppdrag granskning showed a family of nine living in a two bedroom apartment in Malmö full of cockroaches? A lot of people have difficult lives but in most countries there is an awareness of this. But in Sweden, people just won’t believe it’s true unless it happened to them. Of course it’s sad to see a kid doing homework at the balcony cause it’s the only cockroach-free area in the apartment. But it is even more depressing to observe the blank faces of building owners, politicians, social workers, and so on, saying: “I just can’t believe this is happening in Sweden”. It’s happening in Sweden! It reminds me of the other day when a white lady (sorry for the expression, I just don’t know how else to put it) self assured told me (me, being the black lady) that she certainly never heard anyone say “nigger” so I was wrong saying that racisme exsist in Sweden (I think I even claimed that it was extensively). Just because it didn’t happen to you (white lady) doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

Spending time with informants is such a privilege. Not only do they welcome me into their private lives, they allow me to explore their personal world – an amazing source of information on human behavior. That’s way the ethnographic method is so central for in-depth understanding of people.

The other day I was doing fieldwork with a truck driver. As we were driving and exploring feelings of security on the road she said:

If I feel unsafe I try to ground myself. It’s sort of a meditation act. It’s not that I’m religious but I ask the higher power or… being for help. I notify that I’m in need of assistance. Then I send… chains down through my driving seat, through the truck, through the asphalt, down and down. And that’s how I ground myself. Chains are good, that’s strong stuff, but I actually use spider web a lot. Lots and lots of spider web.

Difficult times have fostered a new type of mentality in Sweden and I am not referring to the crises of today. Kids, youths, that was borne in the 90-ties have always been raised in a state of crises, stress and insecurity. The rest of us, borne in the 40ties, 50ties, 60ties, 70ties and 80ties, we learned that the world is ours, the welfare will protect us and that you work to live – not the other way around. When doing fieldwork among the younger once, it’s obvious that their attitude concerning the crises of today differs from the other generations. And it’s not because they are younger, it’s because they have prepared their whole life for the fact that the future is a personal project. While this is normal for liberal countries, it’s new for an old socialist country. This ”fresh” attitude while change the foundation of whatever it means to be a Swede.