Sociology of Food and Eating

This article considers relationships and intersections between place, community and foodscapes. We present a case study of the making of a foodscape in The Whau, a local authority area of Auckland, New Zealand, involving place-making activities generated by the food-oriented initiative, Kai Whau (food in The Whau). We examine how food is invoked as core for place-making in response to community disruption following re-drawing of regional electoral boundaries. Findings are drawn from interviews and discussions with key stakeholders from food-related community organisations in the region, secondary materials (policy and scoping documents, funding applications, educational outreach materials from Kai Whau), and historical documentation of the region. We overview the historical significance of food in this region and briefly outline governance reforms that facilitated the Kai Whau initiative. Drawing on theoretical work on centring, we show how Kai Whau, and its associated food-related community initiatives and organisations, function as both centres and centring agents for place-making and community-building. This is accomplished through facilitating food flows and food knowledge across the community and promoting gatherings around food. We conclude that relational processes of placemaking underpin food-related activities across The Whau, acting to build, connect, and strengthen communities.

Food is perceived as probably the most distinctive aspect of Italian identity both in Italy and abroad. Food culture is central both to the way Italians mark their national identity and to the consolidation of Italianicity in a global context.  However, gastronomic identity, just like other aspects of identity, is a continuous construction that consolidates through practice across history and geography rather than an essence to be discovered in a purified moment of origin, a well-delimited site, a single product or recipe. Creolization and hybridization are indeed a feature of any cuisine. This is particularly the case for Italian cuisine, exposed as it has been to a variety of influences throughout its history. This introduction illustrate the rationale for putting toghether a collection on Italians and food and sets the major coordinates for the study of italianicity at the table.

Πρόλογος. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Κεφάλαιο 1
Φιλοσοφίες της σκηνής/Σκηνές της φιλοσοφίας.
Μια εισαγωγή. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Για τη διάκριση θεωρίας και φιλοσοφίας του θεάτρου . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Κεφάλαιο 2
Επιζώντας στο ανεγγύητο της δικαιοσύνης.
Επί-σκεψη στην Αντιγόνη του Σοφοκλή. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Η διεργασία και η εμπειρία του πένθους . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Το πάθος της δικαιοσύνης. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Η τοπολιτολογία του τάφου. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Παρεκβατικό υστερόγραφο. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Κεφάλαιο 3
Η αισιοδοξία του Δραγανίγου, οι Philosophes
και ο Giambatista Vico. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
10 ΘΙΑΣΩΤΕΣ & ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΙ
Κεφάλαιο 4
«Έχει υπάρξει».
Χρονικές ρωγμές και ανθρώπινα ναυάγια στην παράσταση
Μέδουσα του Θωμά Μοσχόπουλου . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Η πραγματολογία των τριών εισόδων. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Μια ανοικτή δομή . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Η τροπικότητα του «έχει υπάρξει» . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Ο ιστορικός και ο βιωμένος χρόνος . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Η μυθοπλαστική πτυχή. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Η ερμηνευτική πτυχή. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Η επιτελεστικότητα της ιστορίας και του θεάτρου . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Η διακειμενική πτυχή . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Ο Schopenhauer και ο Benjamin ανάμεσα σε άλλους . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Κεφάλαιο 5
Στα άκρα της απόφασης.
Αφηγήσεις αυτοθυσίας και το πολιτικό πρόταγμα
της σύγχρονης σκηνής. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Το υποκείμενο της απόφασης και ο μεταμοντέρνος ηρωισμός. . . . . . . 169
Η επιτελεστικότητα της αυτοθυσίας. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Ο μεταηθικός ηρωισμός . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Η σωκρατική μύγα . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Κεφάλαιο 6
Αντηχήσεις σε ένα χλιμίντρισμα.
Ιχνηλατώντας το Χλιμίντρισμα του Μάριου Ποντίκα . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
ΠΕΡΙΕΧΟΜΕΝΑ 11
Κεφάλαιο 7
«Τρέφομαι με τον θάνατο».
Η βρώση και οι βροτοί στις σκηνές του Rodrigo García
και του Βασίλη Ζιώγα . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
1. Οι έννοιες-κλειδιά . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
2. Η εμβέλεια της θεατρικής μεταφοράς . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
3. Οι σκηνές του Rodrigo Carcía . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
4. Ανθρωποφαγικά τοπία . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Κεφάλαιο 8
Δυστοπίες, ετεροτοπίες, οριοφιλίες
και άλλα θεατρικά ιδιώματα του τόπου . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Από τη δυστοπία στην ετεροτοπία. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Διαφυγή από τη δυστοπία. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
«Κωλοδουλειά»: Η σύγχρονη κανονικότητα της δυστοπίας . . . . . . . . . 263
François Tanguy, Passim: Ομορία και οριοφιλία . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Μικρή φαινομενολογία του «κάτω» στο «Go Down Moses»
του Romeo Castellucci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Κεφάλαιο 9
Ο δρόμος ανήκει στους πολίτες.
Σκηνές και ετεροτοπίες στους δρόμους της πόλης . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Επιλεγόμενα . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Βιβλιογραφία . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

See more at: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520306325/the-chinese-pursuit-of-happiness
Food is both a material need and a medium of social communication. Foodways are thus a unique lens to explore the expression of ideas of well-being in society. This chapter looks at how people talk about food in urban China. Answers to open-ended interview questions about memories of happy meals show that many people describe their happiest meals as special occasions in which they ate outside the home with friends. Eating out is in contemporary China is thus seen as a way in which friendship ties are cultivated and expressed. Asking about unhappy eating, however, reveals both tensions and social exclusions in contemporary ideas of happiness in China. Urban Chinese are concerned about food safety, often associating risks with food vendors and producers operating on the fringes of urban society, indicating how notions of happiness exclude the urban and rural poor. Other concepts of unhappy meals, however, point to the tensions that arise when people pursue material benefits through “face consumption” in expensive banquets meant to cultivate relationships but instead experience a sense of boredom or emptiness that belies the social purposes of eating together. Good eating is thus a window onto both the ideals and anxieties of a rising urban middle class in China.

Dans cet essai je voudrais rapprocher certaines pièces de Rodrigo García et Vassilis Ziogas, afin d’examiner la possibilité d’un passage caché entre βρώσης (manger) et διάβρωσης (éroder), d’une liaison latente qui nous permettra de passer de la notion du βρωτός (mangeable) à celle du βροτός (mortel) et associer le repas au mort sur la scène.

India is experiencing a modernisation process characterised by rapid urbanisation and the emergence of a new middle class. This process is expected to lead to a change in lifestyles and dietary patterns, and notably higher consumption of animal based foods. The present article focuses on this changing dietary trend in the city of Vadodara in Gujarat (India). A stratified sample of 432 women and men was selected, representing Brahmin, non-Brahmin and Jain communities from high, medium and low socioeconomic strata. The results revealed that, in the transition process, the supposed protein shift from plant-to animal based foods takes specific forms in this cultural context because of more complex drivers that shape food consumption than the socioeconomic position in the society. It highlights that beyond the supra-determination of castes and socioeconomic classes, major drivers of this consumption are the norms and values attached to foods and their interrelations with eating practices according to spatiotemporal and social dimensions. This Indian case reveals that dietary change is not unidirectional towards the Western model but each culture has a unique form of transition.

This thesis is a sociological contribution to the study of abundance. It discusses the case of Swedish meat producers and how they persist in producing pork and beef despite a lack of demand and competitive disadvantages compared with foreign suppliers. In doing so, this study answers how abundance is perpetuated in the production of a foodstuff in over-supply. This monograph further adds new empirical and theoretical knowledge to the fields of food studies, economic sociology, and the social sciences studying problems of abundance.

The study explores how Swedish meat producers deal with problems stemming from supplying more than demanded volumes of food. The inquiry into this topic combines pragmatism, economic sociology, and qualitative fieldwork. The empirical materials mainly consist of in-depth interviews with 41 informants and more than one month of participatory observations from the Swedish meat supply chain.

The evidence supplied shows how farmers, meat processors, and retailers continue supplying an abundant foodstuff by studying the valuations used in their production practice. The conclusion is that meat is not supplied to meet the consumers’ demand for food. Instead, this foodstuff is supplied as a marketing tool to meet the producers’ demand for commerce as an aesthetic of market exchange, or sustained production in line with Swedish agrifood policy, distinguished by high animal welfare and low antibiotics use. It is further argued that abundance is perpetuated because these producers rely on valuations which distinguish certain qualities of a good, rather than sufficient quantity of supply. Without using a quantitative, commensurable measure, it is not possible to limit the supply. This study contrasts existing theories of abundance by stating that problems thereof depend on how sufficiency is valuated, not the existence of some excess. These findings further support the argument that supply chains must be granted more attention in food studies primarily preoccupied with consumers. They also suggest further investigations into the relationships between markets in supply chains, and the role of production sites in economic life, would benefit economic sociology.