Food & society : principles and paradoxes / Amy E. Guptill, Denise A. Copelton, Betsy Lucal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guptill, Amy Elizabeth, 1973-

Contributor:

Copelton, Denise A.

Lucal, Betsy

James Samuel Blank Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food--Social aspects.

Food.

Food habits--Social aspects.

Food habits.

Physical Description:

232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Food and society

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Polity, 2013.

Summary:

This timely and engaging text offers students a social perspective on food, food practices, and the modern food system. It engages readers' curiosity by highlighting several paradoxes: how food is both mundane and sacred, reveals both distinction and conformity, and, in the contemporary global era, comes from everywhere but nowhere in particular. With a social constructionist framework, the book provides an empirically rich, multifaceted, and coherent introduction to this fascinating field. Each chapter begins with a vivid case study, proceeds through a rich engagement with research insights, and ends with discussion questions and suggested resources. Chapter topics include food's role in socialization, identity, work, health and social change, as well as food marketing and the changing global food system. In synthesizing insights from diverse fields of social inquiry, the book addresses issues of culture, structure, and social inequality throughout. Written in a lively style, this book will be both accessible and revealing to beginning and intermediate students alike. Book jacket.

Contents:

Principles and paradoxes in the study of food

Food and identity: fitting in and standing out

Food as spectacle: the hard work of leisure

Nutrition and health: good to eat, hard to stomach

Branding and marketing: governing the sovereign consumer

Industrialization: the high costs of cheap food

Global food: from everywhere and nowhere

Food access: surplus and scarcity

Food and social change: the value of values.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the James Samuel Blank Fund.

ISBN:

0745642829

9780745642826

OCLC:

798615218

Publisher Number:

99952071157