Homepage – « Drinking, Eating, Living » Major

Welcome to the website of the Boire, Manger, Vivre (BMV)/Drinking, Eating, Living Major at Sciences Po Lille.

Course objective

The Boire, Manger, Vivre (BMV)/Drinking, Eating, Living Major is a program situated at the intersections of culture, the environment, and international relations.

It approaches food as a general social fact and a global issue.

The program combines approaches from social sciences (law, economics, history, political science, sociology, etc.) and encourages dialogue with life sciences.

The Boire, Manger, Vivre (BMV) major pays particular attention to new ways of producing, consuming, preserving, and exchanging foods, through cultural identities and the comparative dimensions brought by the international perspective.

This program takes place through an apprenticeship (alternating work and class) during the the fifth year.

---

Main career opportunities

The objective of the BMV major is to train individuals for careers in:

• Gastronomic arts professions (restaurants, hospitality)
• Tourism-related to agricultural and viticultural productions
• Management of cultural venues associated with food or gastronomy
• Expertise in organizations, associations, foundations, unions, institutes, international institutions, study organizations, and competitiveness clusters
• Journalism and specialized critiques
• Management roles in viticultural, food, and para-food sectors
• Non-engineering roles in agri-food industries
• Innovations in food products and distribution (FoodTech)

---

Head of the BMV Major

Editorial by the head of the major

Dear students,

Verbs were needed to say it. Not imperatives, but infinitives that sound like commitments, in your future professions, to work towards (well) drinking, (well) eating, and (well) living.

Your birth date sits at the border of two centuries. You are at Sciences Po (Lille) – or you want to be there – because everything interests you, so choice becomes a slight agony that needs to be embraced, and now is the moment when the slow work of hesitations must reveal the clarity of conviction. Sciences Po is the great school that poses and confronts contemporary issues through the human and social sciences: this century that you have known since birth carries and drags the intertwined questions of the trio: drinking, eating, and living (Boire, Manger, Vivre/BMV).

Let’s look at some of these issues. What we ingest into our bodies to live is part of nature. In this sense, food should be preventive medicine for both the individual and the planet. It’s an environmental issue. What we consume (liquids and solids) isn’t just anything; it depends on who, with whom, when, where, the manner, inherited practices, and the habits we want to change. In short, it’s a cultural issue. It’s not about dividing nature and culture, quite the opposite, because we cultivate the land and the environment is social. This fundamental link between environment and culture is the foundation of BMV.

Now for an angle. You can’t capture a relationship like this – environment/culture – without an angle. Look elsewhere. Elsewhere means next door, but it also means further afield. You have to look at imaginations and identities, try to compare relationships with the world, because different ways of eating and drinking are different ways of living. This diversity is a richness that needs to be preserved, and it will also be an issue in the profession you choose.

Warm regards,

Benoît Lengaigne.