Eating Our Way to Authenticity: Polish Food Culture & the Post-Socialist ‘Transformation’

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The author's theoretical concept is too dominant over  results of empirical research that are not presented satisfactorily. It is not known how many questions were asked and which part is analyzed. No relationship was shown between bloggers' responses. It is hard to believe that it was such a homogeneous community that did not show any significant differences in answering the questions asked. It is also interesting to what extent, according to the author, running a blog about nutrition is authentic and innovative, and to what extent is it an imitation from Western countries?

Besides, the situation of Poland in terms of access to food is poorly outlined before and after 1989. Before 1989, food shortages were common (the famous empty shelves in grocery stores - compare a book by J.R. Wedel, "The Private Poland"), After 1989, there was an excess of food, including poor quality food, but rather cheap and easily available in large supermarkets.

Before publishing the article, it is necessary to refine the empirical part (research results) and describe the specific situation of Poland in more detail, and not only adjust the theoretical concepts functioning in countries with a different specificity and history.

Author Response

The author's theoretical concept is too dominant over  results of empirical research that are not presented satisfactorily.

I have added many more empirical examples, especially in relation to the post-socialist context. I hope that they better speak to the theoretical arguments drawn out at the end.

It is not known how many questions were asked and which part is analyzed. 

Have added the questions. As mentioned in the methodology section, the responses to the authenticity question were drawn out and used paradigmatically to identify the sub-themes. Therefore, if someone said something at another point in the discussion that directly related to what they had earlier classified as authentic, it was included in the discussion. So, theoretically, all answers were screened for how they related to the three dominant authenticity paradigms, to then establish the sub-themes. (I should note the 'authenticity' questions were always asked at the end of the interview, and used for coding the previous responses).

No relationship was shown between bloggers' responses. 

The intention here was to draw out dominant themes, therefore discrepancies between responses were not the focus, or they were noted in summaries, before the dominant themes were described.

It is also interesting to what extent, according to the author, running a blog about nutrition is authentic and innovative, and to what extent is it an imitation from Western countries?

This is a good point, and I would have liked to have investigated this further, although it was only a weak theme to have emerged. I do think that for many of the bloggers, blogging was one of the ways to secure authenticity, or to get closer to it, but there was not enough material for me to make a case for whether it was a trend or not and the critical framing ended up focused more on the post-socialist context, as this emerged more strongly.

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a very good article, and it has been a pleasure to read it. Congratulations. I only have some small comments/reflections: 

• Would the conclusions of you article be able to be applied in other contexts? In the introduction, and in the conclusion, you place strong emphasis on the idea of the imbrication between the local history and the building of "authenticity" on contemporary food cultures. However, I wonder to what extent your findings and conclusions would be that different in another contexts? I have the feelings that your conclusions would be very similar in other contexts (then, maybe the historical narrative would be slightly different but there still be many similarities in terms of approaching and building authenticity). I think that the article would benefit from a broader reflection about how does your findings might also be valid for other contexts.
• I would also open a bit the mapping of the bibliographical references in the introduction. You include very general sociological reflections (Giddens, Beck...) (which seems fine to me), and very local reflections on the polish context. However, I think that lacks to take into account some of the sociological works on food cultures done in other contexts. 
• I think that the notion of "Acceleration", and the one of "Ressonance", from Hartmut Rosa could help you to better make sense of your data. 
• A very minor detail. In the line 51, there is a repetition of the word "key" 

Author Response

Would the conclusions of you article be able to be applied in other contexts? In the introduction, and in the conclusion, you place strong emphasis on the idea of the imbrication between the local history and the building of "authenticity" on contemporary food cultures. However, I wonder to what extent your findings and conclusions would be that different in another contexts? I have the feelings that your conclusions would be very similar in other contexts (then, maybe the historical narrative would be slightly different but there still be many similarities in terms of approaching and building authenticity). I think that the article would benefit from a broader reflection about how does your findings might also be valid for other contexts.

I agree with this. In fact, the original intention of this article was to make a case for how food operates as an authenticating (this was the theoretical question lurking in the background) medium in late modernity, but then it became very clear that Poles are also functioning within a specific context of rapid modernisation and it would be foolish not to speak to that.. I hope to add more about this in the next edit, as in this revision round I was asked to add much more empirical evidence and that was my focus (in other words, I ran out of time).

I would also open a bit the mapping of the bibliographical references in the introduction. You include very general sociological reflections (Giddens, Beck...) (which seems fine to me), and very local reflections on the polish context. However, I think that lacks to take into account some of the sociological works on food cultures done in other contexts. 

I agree with this too, and hope to sit back and properly edit this now that the major revisions have been done. 

Thank you for these notes!