Mining cross-cultural relations from Wikipedia - A study of 31 European food cultures Paul Laufer Claudia Wagner Graz University of Technology GESIS & U. of Koblenz Graz, Austria Cologne, Germany
[email protected] [email protected] Fabian Flöck Markus Strohmaier GESIS GESIS & U. of Koblenz Cologne, Germany Cologne, Germany fabian.fl
[email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT the editor community of the Romanian-language Wikipedia For many people, Wikipedia represents one of the primary could either have a deviant mental picture of the French sources of knowledge about foreign cultures. Yet, differ- cuisine { or it might estimate the priorities of Romanian- ent Wikipedia language editions offer different descriptions speaking readers to rather be on meat-based French deli- of cultural practices. Unveiling diverging representations of catessen than on wine and baking goods. Further, the gen- cultures provides an important insight, since they may foster eral interest of the Romanian-speaking readers in the French the formation of cross-cultural stereotypes, misunderstand- cuisine (for example measured by the number of views of the ings and potentially even conflict. In this work, we explore article about French cuisine in the Romanian language edi- to what extent the descriptions of cultural practices in var- tion) might serve to potentially displease any Francophile, ious European language editions of Wikipedia differ on the since the Romanian speaking community might show no- example of culinary practices and propose an approach to tably less interest in the French kitchen than in the Russian mine cultural relations between different language commu- or Hungarian one. This hypothetical scenario serves as an nities trough their description of and interest in their own example for numerous similar real-world cases (which can- and other communities' food culture.