Affordances

Affordances

In class this week we covered affordances and what our chosen activity affords or leads to us doing focussing under three main areas of communication, connections (action properties) and moral properties. When looking at my chosen activity of cooking I have become much more aware of the affordances that this brings, and what kind of meaning and sense of spirituality this activity has to me. A quote I have found interesting and one that describes how I feel about cooking is that of Nigella Lawson (2004 as cited in Sunderland, 2010) who stated “Cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people.  When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be”. I feel this quote is really expressive of what I personally see cooking to be, I love how it brings so much togetherness and a real sense of achievement to me. Cooking has always been a really big part of my family life and there is so much more than just the aspect of eating. In my family it is tradition to have a big meal when we all get together or on special occasions and is a time which I consider really valuable. Working on and increasing my skill level in this activity will enable me to continue this tradition and build on the person I envision myself to be. Below I will explore the three main focus areas in relation to cooking and what it affords me to do.

Communication

With the cooking I do there is a lot of communication needed right from the initial stages of planning to have a meal as I cook both with my flatmate and boyfriend and sometimes all together. This means it is necessary for me to communicate with everyone to ensure no one thinks they need to wait for me and I don’t step on anyone’s toes. When this is sorted there is the need to plan what we will cook, where we will cook and what if we have what is needed. One this is all sorted out we shall begin and furthermore communicate on who will do what tasks.  Asides from the technical components of communication there is a large part of social communication that goes on with the task of cooking. It is a time where we catch up on what we have done in the day and just have a general catch up on what’s new for each of us.

Connections

In regard to connections or action properties I will look at what actions this task leads me to do and for me this is a really important part of the process...EATING! Not only do I get the satisfaction of filling my stomach, the eating leads to more communication and socialising with not only my cooking partner but also the rest of my flat. This is an important part of the process as it is a time where we often will all be socialising which is important to me as with such different schedules this is a time where we all get to be together.  Finally there is the cleanup which once again can afford more conversation and usually bring an end to the activity of cooking until the next day when you do it all over again.

Moral properties

Moral properties are all about the good and the bad which comes with cooking and for me the good outweighs the bad by far. Cooking, along with allowing me the opportunity to socialise with many people gives me a real sense of accomplishment when I’ve completed meals that I didn’t think I would have the skills to do. The bad things that can come about when cooking with other people is that everyone has different preferences and may not like what others do. This can cause me to run in to problems and sometimes arguments over what to have. Another bad side is the clean up can be difficult to be motivated to complete and I know in my flat this has caused a bit of uneasiness around people not cleaning up after themselves. All in all i know that these few small things wont change the passion i now have for cooking and i will continue with.

Reference

Sunderland, J (2010). Adaptive living and occupation: food and culture. Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author. Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy, Dunedin.