Abstract
Food and Society: Principles and Paradoxes aims to bring together insights from a broad range of disciplines which have contributed to the development of the field of food studies. The authors recognize from the outset that food studies as a discipline is incredibly diverse and that a single text is unlikely to satisfactorily capture all potentially salient dimensions, but they seek to present an introductory text that introduces some of the key concepts and debates within the field. Food and Society is successful in presenting an accessible text appropriate to even the most novice student and is written in a compelling manner that should pique interest for further study – it opens with a case study on competitive eating, for example, which acts as an intriguing invitation to read on.
The book is premised upon sociological underpinnings: that food is both symbolic and substantive; that it is experientially and structurally social and that it is complex, giving rise to the principles of its title: heterogeny, social inequality and dynamism. It structures around key paradoxes which should prove thought-provoking for students new to the field. While other introductory texts may be able to cover more substantive ground than this book (which is relatively slight at under 232 pages), it makes a clear contribution though its focus upon the field’s inherent debates which students may not access as readily in other materials. Its chapter titles make clear the paradox which each explores, such as the hard work of leisure, and it focuses clearly on illustrating these paradoxes to the student, combining strong theoretical and empirical sources.
While written in a lively, accessible style this book would, however, need to be supplemented with further reading to really inform all but the most introductory food studies course. It strives for a broad scope but, as previously noted, it is relatively brief, such that depth of discussion concerning each of the substantive areas introduced in its chapters is not achievable. Marketing’s impact upon food studies, for example, is tackled in a rather condensed 20 pages, such that the vibrancy of scholarship in this domain is rather lost; this is true of the other similarly brief chapters tackling vast domains such as identity, nutrition, globalization and food security. Situating this book alongside some more detailed additional reading is likely to provide a more satisfactory teaching basis, but while the authors make additional reading suggestions for each chapter, these tend not to represent the key canonical texts in those domains, and so educators would need to introduce those separately.
Each chapter opens with a case study illustrative of the paradox which the chapter seeks to explore: Vegemite as Australian identity work, Kellogg’s Special K replacement diets in health, and so forth. These case studies may provide some excellent material for class discussions or further student research, but readers should also be aware they act to shape the way in which some key ideas are formulated. Identity is very much a group concept in this text, rather than individually constructed, and so individual identity scholarship is absent. Categorization of gender, class and ethnicity perhaps reflects the text’s aim to combine structuralist and constructionist approaches to food study, but this perspective excludes a whole stream of food and identity scholarship, which may inhibit the novice scholar’s informed engagement with the key concepts.
This text is particularly rich in examples that act to strongly illustrate the subjects discussed; however, international students may find these rather too heavily situated in the US context. Discussion of Thanksgiving rituals may be widely culturally accessible, but other examples used are much more geopolitically specific. There is an excellent discussion of the US industrialization of milk, and a food access chapter providing a detailed picture of US food poverty and security but, while interesting, these do not have clearly defined global parallels – a limiting factor that, with some thought, the authors could have addressed to extend students’ understanding.
Overall this book would, however, act as an excellent first food studies text, allowing students to orient themselves within the domain and begin to comprehend some of the contemporary practical and theoretical issues which scholarship within the field seeks to address.