Food Culture

& Social Networks

Akash Das
Anway Bhattacharyya
Social Network Analysis

SNA is a paradigm that became rooted early on in the social

sciences (e.g. Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Simmel, Morgan) yet
the theoretical and methodological development of the
paradigm started only towards the end of the 1920s.

A social network is a structure of relationships linking social

actors or the set of actors and the ties among them George Simmel

“A social network is a set of socially relevant nodes connected

by one or more relations” (Marin and Wellman 2011)
Elements of SNA – A Quick Review
Defining Networks
In order to explain social phenomena, it asks that we turn our attention to relational data and the
relationships among the interdependent subjects in society, inferring a shift away from monadic variables
(attributes of actors) towards dyadic variables (attributes of pairs of actors, attributes of relations among actors)
among the total set of actors
Relying on graph theory, a network can be construed as a graph formed by a set of actors/vertices
(social actors or objects) and the set of relations which connect them, although a network also contains more
information than can be depicted by a graph such as the nature of vertices and/or the relations on the graph.

Defining Connections
Ties themselves can be as diverse as it is possible to imagine as they embrace every aspect of social
relations including kinships, friendships, co-workers etc
Among the same set of actors many networks can be mapped, each with different structures, roles and
positions
Each kind of tie can form a separate network, and multiple networks may be analyzed and compared
for the same group of actors
Actor Network Theory
First developed in early 1980s by Michel Callon, Madeleine
Akrich, Bruno Latour and John Law

ANT does not explain why a network take the form it does –
rather is a way of thoroughly explaining the regional ties with
the network

“Explanation does not follow form description, it is description

taken that much further” - Latour
Bruno Latour
Although ANT is mostly associated with studies of science and
technology and with the sociology of science, it has been
making steady progress in other fields of sociology as well
Summary of the Actor Network Theory

Concept Description

Actor (or actant) Both human beings and nonhuman actors such as technological artefacts

Actor-network Heterogeneous network of aligned interests, including people,

organizations and standards
Enrolment and translation Creating a body of allies, human and non-human, through a process of
translating their interests to be aligned with the actor-network
Delegates and inscription Delegates are actors who "stand in and speak for" particular viewpoints
which have been inscribed in them
Irreversibility The degree to which it is subsequently impossible to go back to a point
where alternative possibilities exist
Comparative Analysis of SNA & ANT :

Similarities
Both use the concepts of networks and actors and both also examine the relationships between
actors and emphasize the importance of relationships

In both approaches networks can have non-human elements

Both differentiate different kinds of actors, some of which are more central than others

Although ANT was originally used in connection with science-related research, its scope has
widened, so nowadays some topics of investigation overlap with those of SNA – for example, co-
authorship and economic markets and obviously ours !!
Comparative Analysis of SNA & ANT :
Differences
They have developed in different fields of social sciences – ANT and SNA literature does not
speak to the same scientific audience

ANT attempts to map the connections between heterogeneous entities without attempting
to quantify the strength of connections or build a model which can be applied in
various contexts
SNA research is conducted with the specific goal of formulating and testing causal
hypotheses

The two approaches have different views about what a network is –

In ANT, a network is a special kind of metaphor. Formalized presentations are typically
not used by the approach
SNA has generated a well developed methodology for actor selection and tie definition
and uses several kinds of software to analyze and formalize visualizations of a network.

There is different understanding of what relationships are -

ANT the term relationship is more loosely used to mean that at least two entities mutually
affect each other – or the focus is on the process of translation
SNA uses a more concrete definition and system of categorizing relationships/ties
Why Online Food Survey ?
Generating data is time consuming and costly

Suffers from “Hawthorne Effect”

Unlimited collection of User Generated Content (UGC)

Readily available reaction of people to that data

Study on Online Food Preferences

Wagner, Claudia, Philipp Singer, and Markus Strohmaier. "The nature and evolution of online food preferences." EPJ Data Science 3 (2014): 1-22.
 Summary & Results
Explored the online food preferences of users and
classified them into the following four dimensions:
recipe preferences, ingredient preferences, spatially and
temporally-related food preferences.

Recipe and ingredients preferences were found to be

linked closely, and the analysis of the number of visits
to that recipe was found to be an accurate measure of
popularity

Geographically distant users had more differences in

preferences

Wagner, Claudia, Philipp Singer, and Markus Strohmaier. "The nature and evolution of online food preferences." EPJ Data Science 3 (2014): 1-22.
A specific Case Study of China

Zhang, Chengzhi, et al. "Using social media to explore regional cuisine preferences in China." Online Information Review (2019)
 Summary & Results
The authors studied cuisine preferences in provinces of
China, and the analysis is based on user generated
content such as microblogs, which are verified with
recipe visits and quantified using dish concern vectors,
cosine similarity etc.

The classifications were similar, but they did not

comment upon temporal variations

Similar geographical dependences found, and an

additional factor of humidity was found to affect food
preferences

They mentioned that their proposal of the clustering

algorithm will help restaurateurs customize and
tailor-make their menus based on regional preferences
by understanding their target customers better.

Zhang, Chengzhi, et al. "Using social media to explore regional cuisine preferences in China." Online Information Review (2019)
What’s New, What’s Next ??
The Novelty Factor !!

Zhang et. al. have mentioned that their proposal of the clustering algorithm will help restaurateurs
customize and tailor-make their menus based on regional preferences by understanding their target
customers better

What WE did ??
We looked into a few of the famous dishes and tried to trace if they made it to the shortened Puja special
menu most restaurants choose to serve in Kolkata, to manage the Puja rush

The dishes chosen are immensely popular in Kolkata and take a long time to cook. These dishes tend to be
overlooked by restaurants since it is difficult to serve them in such a rush, but at some point, the demand and
the supply must have a face-off
OUR Data & Analysis
Cuisines Food items Ala-carte Combos Set Menu/ Not
menu only Thali only Present

North Biryani 15 5 0 0
Indian

Butter Chicken 4 2 0 8
or Paneer

Bengali Dak Bungalow 5 1 2 0

Basanti Pulao 4 0 1 3

Asian Khow Suey 4 0 0 2

Dumplings 4 0 2 0

Fusion Sizzlers 5 0 0 5

From blogs and Instagram stories and photos, we discovered that the demand for Biryani and Basanti Pulao were all time high during this
period, and so were the demand for Butter Chicken and Paneer.

Sizzlers and Khao Suey had an average demand, so the fact that these were not included in some restaurant menu is justified only when
they had other popular items to sell.

So, we can at least conclude that restaurants could anticipate the demand well for North Indian and Bengali cuisine, and tried to
play a safe stand on the other cuisines. This is where research works similar to Zhang et. al. and Claudia et. al. may help so that
restaurants can customize their menus more effectively.
 Akash Das
Thank You !! Anway Bhattacharyya

Under the kind guidance of

Dr. Papia Raj
Dr. Aditya Raj