Platformed Foodways in Helsinki: Young Immigrant Men, AI Tools, and “Networked Eating”

Ali Sharifi
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Ali Sharifi: Department of History and Geography, University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: In a digitally saturated Helsinki, everyday eating is increasingly routed through apps, chats, and platform encounters. This article examines how young immigrant men (aged 21–35) activate these encounters and move across them to shape their food practices and a sense of belonging. In qualitative interviews, participants narrated how they search and share recipes and foods (e.g., through WhatsApp, Telegram, or Instagram), adapt dishes to cultural or religious preferences, learn new techniques, and use delivery platforms (e.g., Wolt) both as customers and, at times, as workers. I conceptualize these dynamics as “platformed foodways”: interactions between migrant customers and migrant couriers mediated via digital tools, which are embodied and embedded in everyday practices and create brief but meaningful encounters. This conceptualization draws on the broader notion of “platformization” (Poell et al., 2019), referring to the progressive embedding of routine food practices—recipe seeking, shopping, cooking, and social eating—into digital platform infrastructures and logics. I argue that platform‐mediated weak ties function as “just‐in‐time” coaching, and that AI lowers language and knowledge barriers while sometimes creating new frictions (advice overload, cultural mismatch). The article makes an innovative contribution to the relationality of platformed foodways in Helsinki by centering networks, mobilities, and food practices, aligned with digitally saturated social worlds. With this study, I also make a timely contribution to the nuanced recognition and care of social inclusion studies with the everyday embedded role of generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini) in mediating migrants’ encounters and well‐being.

Keywords: digital foodways; generative AI; Helsinki; immigrant well‐being; language barriers; online–offline mobilities; platform‐mediated encounters; young immigrant men (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12135

DOI: 10.17645/si.12135

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