The dispersed practice of trial and error: understanding adaptation, improvisation and change across food practices

ABSTRACTPeople develop their own ways of enriching the healthiness and tastiness of certain foods, or of their diet, overall. This is often pursued through trial and error, which in this context involves trying, eating, assessing, reflecting, then trying again. Trial and error involves sensory learning, embodied know-how and routinised engagements with information sources such as recipes and social media, as well as with friends and family, and health professionals. Individual instances of trial and error vary, but it is recognisable as a social practice. More specifically, this paper argues that trial and error is a dispersed practice. As such, it supports adaptation, improvisation, insight and information-seeking within other food and health practices. To examine trial and error as a practice, this paper shares findings from a qualitative study of rural and urban Canadians' everyday food lives. The study, through ethnographic techniques such as video tours, explored how people become and stay informed about food. Findings illuminate how trial and error bolsters and connects related food and information practices, and shapes their evolution over time.