Everyday Eating Practices of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Citizens

Abstract

This article presents the key findings of the empirical study on contemporary eating practices conducted by the authors in 2013. The study is based on the case of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region residents. The data were obtained through faceto-face interviews conducted at respondents’ homes with 800 people representative by age, gender, education, occupation and household type. Following theoretical approach used by the Nordic researchers (Kjærnes, Ekström, Gronow, Holm, Mäkelä) the authors consider eating event a basic concept for studying everyday eating activity. This concept involves three dimensions: the eating patterns, the meal format, and the social organization of eating. Everyday eating is described from the point of its content, structure, time and place on the example of an ordinary weekday. Also, some references to traditional eating models in Russia have been made. The results of the study make evident that many traditional traits are reproduced in today’s eating patterns. The respondents are far from “gastro-anomy” ideas and prefer ration and regime tested by generations. Changes in food content and eating organization related to globalization have not transformed Russians’ practices of food consumption in a significant way. Most likely, contemporary food culture in Russia remains quite traditional.