Michael Haedicke



Email Address:  mhaedick@ucsd.edu

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B.A.: Kalamazoo College, Sociology

Advanced to Candidacy in: 2005

Areas of Specialization: Social stratification, sociology of culture, organizational routines in businesses and the creation of markets for new commodities.

Current Research: I am currently researching and writing my doctoral dissertation, which is tentatively titled “Culture and Competition in the US Organic Foods Industry.” This project examines disputes about the meaning and presentation of organic commodities that have developed alongside the explosive growth of the organic foods industry from 1989 to the present. The main questions I seek to answer in my study are: How have mainstream food distributors and retailers adapted the meanings and presentation of organic foods to suit the needs of their organizations? How have independent stores and co-ops responded to changes in the industry and to increased competition from mainstream retailers and natural foods retail chains? What are the organizations that try to define an identity for organic foods at a national level, and what political and rhetorical strategies do they use to do so? Answers to these questions will help us understand the ways in which cultural disputes about product identities shape the character and organization of expanding industries more generally. This project employs qualitative research interviews with store owners and managers, as well as with organic foods advocates and industry consultants. It also draws data from content analysis of primary documents involved in disputes and of articles in food trade periodicals. Finally, it involves ethnographic observation at industry conferences and trade shows. I have also presented papers at academic conferences on a variety of subjects, including purity codes in threatened languages, anti-Asian nativism and land tenure restrictions in 19th century California, and portrayals of organic and other “alternative” foods in the mainstream French press. Although substantively diverse, my academic work continues to explore how struggles over meanings develop and affect the experience of social life.

Mailing Address:
University of California, San Diego
Department of Sociology
9500 Gilman Dr. - 0533
La Jolla, CA 92093-0533

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