Abstract
This collaboration between the Universities of Sheffield and Trondheim uses research data from the UK, Norway, Sweden and the US to consider children’s food choices and practices in terms of identity development. The collection uses research both with and about children across a range of ages in the family context and in public spaces.
The significance of the global political agenda is made clear, particularly in relation to children, fast food, obesity and marketing, prompting the editors to advance children’s food practices and eating habits as a social phenomenon and therefore a key research arena for childhood studies.
To begin, Keenan and Stapleton explore the complexity of mother–infant feeding relationships in a health policy context that advances demand feeding as the panacea, providing valuable insights into the realities of this experience and prompting an important reappraisal of the notion of ‘demand’. James et al. then set the scene for the whole collection, suggesting that family and food have undergone a process of detrimental decline. Their consideration of the family meal as a symbol of family stability and the barriers to accomplishing this in terms of ‘doing family’ provides insight into children’s participation in the family meal as a metaphorical commitment to the family more generally. Curtis et al. maintain that fathers and children continue to play only supporting roles in family food practices and that the lack of children’s cooking activity challenges notions of gender socialization. However, noting what children did instead might have revealed the value parents placed on other activities.
Three chapters focus on children as food consumers in public spaces, two of which draw on data collected with young people. Dryden et al. use children’s drawings and discussion of packed lunches to examine their views about healthy eating. Although the data collection activity is innovative, their conclusion that children are aware of current healthy eating agendas but sometimes express choices that diverge from them is perhaps unsurprising. Wills et al. explore class and the fast food consumption practices of middle-class teenagers and suggest that avoiding fast food was central to their identity development – mirroring parental attitudes even out of the parental gaze. The teenagers expressed disapproval of fast food outlets despite using them to meet peers, which helped them maintain the distinction of ‘other’ to working-class youth.
Brembeck’s excellent chapter outlined how food practices connected public and family spaces and contributed to the acculturation of refugee families. Interviews with mothers of refugee children in Sweden highlighted how children actively introduced new foodstuff to their families, helping their mothers navigate ‘normal’ food and therefore Swedishness. Making social connections prevailed over associated health concerns for mothers, who encouraged fast food consumption as a means of belonging to the new culture. Building relationships through food was also the subject of Punch et al.’s thoughtful discussion of children’s experiences with food in residential care. Using children’s narrative and field notes to great effect, they highlight the subtleties of interactions involving food for these children who, whilst not in a public space, were not in a home environment either. Indeed, the food practices of the staff were clear attempts to bridge this gap.
Three chapters focus on food advertising and branding, with Tingstad’s work perhaps offering the most in terms of theoretical insights. Her excellent overview of the Norwegian welfare state and the reasons for the obesity crisis offered in Norway charted the rise and unequal distribution of obesity amongst children, despite tight regulation of TV advertising. She questions the evidence linking food advertising to obesity and the UK advertising ban during children’s television, maintaining that the obesity/media debate is essentially political in nature. Interviews with key Norwegian stakeholders reveal that continued regulation is based on the assumption that children are unable to protect themselves, which is at odds with the Norwegian view of children as competent citizens with rights.
Burridge’s examination of children’s images in food advertising reveals a dominant visual representation of children being tricked into healthy eating. ‘Stealth mothering’ is also explored by Cook, whose interviews with American mothers reveal concerns about nutrition that prompted them to ‘wage war’ with food brands. Interestingly, Cook concludes that children’s subjectivities are the crux of contemporary anxieties about food, with the child’s expression of agency providing the main obstacle to parental preoccupations with creating order (where junk is disorder). Cook’s work therefore has the potential to move the debate about children’s nutrition forward from simple health concerns.
This collection successfully draws attention to children as social actors, and focuses on a range of ages and locations. However, the gaining of children’s perspectives was somewhat limited since only half of the chapters used data collected from children or young people. As a resource for those interested in childhood obesity, most of the material is useful although a single chapter relating to the global obesity context would have avoided repetition for some authors. The chapters all have something to offer – though not always in terms of new findings, which means that the seeking of new perspectives is perhaps only partially achieved. Most importantly, there was barely any recognition that food is not always readily available to children and young people or that avoiding the preparation of food is not a choice open to all. The issue of food insecurity and its impact would therefore have added a further dimension to this work