Ok, stay with me on this one. This is one of my favourite academic papers. It is one I give to my Master’s students in their first module with me to explore how to get at the substance of what an author is exploring and how it relates to our own area of research.
In fact, the relationship is the exact topic it explores. Using cheese making as its theme, it promotes attention to place and, in wine terms, terroir of production, be it craft, food or indeed, research itself.
It promotes the idea that the nuance of place, its geology, weather, culture and so forth, are ingredients that affect all other parts that go into the making process and so should not only be ignored, but attended to with the intention of understanding more than simply the result.