Labeling and the Politics of Meaning in Category Formation: Defining avant-garde cuisine
This study examines how a new category is collectively defined through labeling efforts by multiple actors operating in the public arena. By analyzing the work of four emblematic chefs associated with avant-garde cuisine from 1995 to 2015, we find that category formation is a contested meaning-making process, which we theorize through the concept of ‘politics of meaning’ and articulate according to four mechanisms: emergence, labeling, contestation, and legitimation. Our study suggests that a new category’s dominant label can substantially deviate from the innovators’ intended denotations, but can nonetheless bring that category forward by triggering public negotiations around meanings and identities, which lead to categorical deepening. It advances our understanding of the connection between category formation and innovators’ identity, the modes of communication underlying categorization and labeling efforts, and the semantic link between categories and labels.