Inventing Culinary Heritage through Strategic Historical Ambiguity

Sophie Marie Cappelen, Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen*

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

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Abstract

Studies have shown how organisations create and use historical narratives to ‘outpast’ competing narratives, in attempts to claim authenticity through antiquity. We extend this work by exploring how organisations deliberately use historical narratives located in a vaguely defined past as a tool to craft legitimate historical narratives of a common cultural heritage. We theorise a link between strategic ambiguity and historical narratives by explaining how organisational actors construct a vaguely defined past and how historical narratives help these actors invent a cultural heritage. Conducting an in-depth case study of a culinary movement based in Istanbul, Turkey, we identify three forms of ambiguity that enable the construction of a common cultural heritage. These forms include ambiguity of origin, ambiguity of artefacts and ambiguity of ownership, and enable actors to concretise and perform a vaguely defined past in the present. Our study advances understanding of organisational uses of the past and suggests the term ‘strategic historical ambiguity’ to capture how ambiguity is deliberately used as a tool to craft legitimate historical narratives of a common cultural heritage.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftOrganization Studies
Vol/bind42
Udgave nummer2
Sider (fra-til)223-243
Antal sider21
ISSN0170-8406
DOI
StatusUdgivet - feb. 2021

Bibliografisk note

Published online: 21. May 2020

Emneord

  • Culinary movement
  • Cultural heritage
  • Historical narratives
  • Strategic ambiguity
  • Strategic historical ambiguity
  • Uses of the past

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