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Who can deny the significance of food? It has a central role in our health and pleasure as well as in our economy, politics and culture. Food in Society provides a social science perspective on food systems and demonstrates the rich variety of disciplinary and theoretical contexts of food studies.
While hunger and malnutrition remain a reality in many countries, for some food has become an experience rather than a sustenance. This book addresses the different worldwide understandings of food through thematic chapters and a wide range of material including: description of the political economy of the food chain, from production to the point of sale; analysis of global issues of supply and demand; critical debate of environmental and health aspects of food, including GM food, the role of habits, taboos, age and gender in food consumption.
Each chapter contains a guide to further reading and to websites of relevance to food. Extensively illustrated, this book is essential reading for students of food studies in the social sciences and humanities.
List of contents
Part 1 Hors D'oeuvre - A background to food studies
Part 2 The Political Economy of Food
Introduction
Food regimes as an organizing concept
Globalisation and food networks
Transformation of the farm sector
Food processing and manufacturing
Food marketing and the consumer
Part 3 Global and Geopolitical Food Issues
Introduction
Food production and population
Malnutrition, hunger and famine
Food surpluses
Food security
Food, world trade and geopolitics
Part 4 A Political Ecology of Food
Introduction
Environmental context
Food quality
Food and health
From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution
Food ethics, food policies and civil society
Part 5 Food Consumption Spaces
Introduction
Factors in consumption
The origins of taste
Food habits, beliefs and taboos
Food, gender and domestic spaces
Part 6 Conclusion
Food studies resources.
About the author
Peter Atkins, Ian Bowler
Summary
Who can deny the significance of food? It has a central role in our health and pleasure as well as in our economy, politics and culture. Food in Society provides a social science perspective on food systems and demonstrates the rich variety of disciplinary and theoretical contexts of food studies.
While hunger and malnutrition remain a reality in many countries, for some food has become an experience rather than a sustenance. This book addresses the different worldwide understandings of food through thematic chapters and a wide range of material including: description of the political economy of the food chain, from production to the point of sale; analysis of global issues of supply and demand; critical debate of environmental and health aspects of food, including GM food, the role of habits, taboos, age and gender in food consumption.
Each chapter contains a guide to further reading and to websites of relevance to food. Extensively illustrated, this book is essential reading for students of food studies in the social sciences and humanities.
