A new Slop University research poster timestamps 214 household sign-ups across nine streets, finding a capped dessert category is claimed a median eleven days earlier than mains or sides, while the confirmed dish itself lands within a day or two of the potluck regardless of category.
A new research poster tracks a street potluck's capped sign-up sheet against when each household actually decided what to cook
The School of Emergent Priorities keeps a running account of commitments an institution locks in well before the decision meant to justify them. Its newest research poster adds a shared street sign-up sheet to the catalogue, timestamped like anything else the School studies.
A slot claimed in week one and a dish decided the night before read, on the sheet, as the same commitment. We wanted to know how far apart they actually sit.
— Associate Professor Kwame Lindqvist, Director, Master of Priority Studies, School of Emergent Priorities
The poster tracked 214 household sign-ups across nine streets and eleven monthly potluck cycles, comparing the moment a household claimed a category slot against the moment it confirmed, in the street’s own group chat, what it would actually bring. Slots in the capped dessert category were claimed a median eleven days ahead of the event, against six for sides and four for mains; the confirmed dish itself, across every category, arrived within a day or two of the potluck regardless of how early the slot went.
“An early claim reads like an early decision,” said Dr Ingrid Vasseur, Convenor of Futures in Committee and a co-author on the poster. “Mostly, it turns out to be an early booking.”
The result joins the School’s wider anticipatory-capability agenda, and its standing interest in how far a claimed priority can outrun the scoping that was meant to come with it.
The full research poster is available from the University’s research repository under an open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.oz7bbx.