Evolution Of Social Ties Around New Food Practices

We live in a world of major disruption, where the individual and the collective stand in opposition against the backdrop of globalization, digital revolution, community development, growing concerns around health and the planet, and now an unprecedented global health crisis. This book explores how these phenomena influence the social ties that surround food and the way we eat together. Extensive research is presented on institutional recommendations concerning eating together, the role of online communities in supporting weight loss, the perceived consequences of diets, the social phenomena involved in vegetarianism, market segmentation in the case of ritual and religious practices, and the rising tendency to "buy local" and to value local identity. As the Covid-19 crisis adds to the complexity of these issues, its impact is also taken into account. For both interested readers and the many players involved in the agri-food industry, these reflections shed light on the current developments in "eating together".

We live in a world of major disruption, where the individual and the collective stand in opposition against the backdrop of globalization, digital revolution, community development, growing concerns around health and the planet, and now an unprecedented global health crisis. This book explores how these phenomena influence the social ties that surround food and the way we eat together. Extensive research is presented on institutional recommendations concerning eating together, the role of online communities in supporting weight loss, the perceived consequences of diets, the social phenomena involved in vegetarianism, market segmentation in the case of ritual and religious practices, and the rising tendency to "buy local" and to value local identity. As the Covid-19 crisis adds to the complexity of these issues, its impact is also taken into account. For both interested readers and the many players involved in the agri-food industry, these reflections shed light on the current developments in "eating together".

This book examines how the social environment affects food choices and intake, and documents the extent to which people are unaware of the significant impact of social factors on their eating. The authors take a unique approach to studying eating behaviors in ordinary circumstances, presenting a theory of normal eating that highlights social influences independent of physiological and taste factors. Among the topics discussed: Modeling of food intake and food choice Consumption stereotypes and impression management Research design, methodology, and ethics of studying eating behaviors What happens when we overeat? Effects of social eating Social Influences on Eating is a useful reference for psychologists and researchers studying food and nutritional psychology, challenging commonly held assumptions about the dynamics of food choice and intake in order to promote a better understanding of the power of social influence on all forms of behavior.

Policy-related, academic and populist accounts of the relationship between food and class tend to reproduce a dichotomy that privileges either middle-class discerning taste or working-class necessity. Taking a markedly different approach, this collection explores the classed cultures of food practices across the spectrum of social stratification. Eschewing assumptions about the tastes (or lack thereof) of low-income consumers, the authors call attention to the diverse, complex forms of critical creativity and cultural capital employed by individuals, families and communities in their attempts to acquire and prepare food that is both healthy and desirable. The collection includes research carried out in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Denmark, and covers diverse contexts, from the intense insecurity of food deserts to the relative security of social democratic states. Through quantitative and qualitative cross-class comparisons, and ethnographic accounts of low-income experiences and practices, the authors examine the ways in which food practices and preferences are inflected by social class (alone, and in combination with gender, ethnicity and urban/rural location). The collection underlines the simultaneous need for the development of a more nuanced, dynamic account of the tastes and cultural competences of socially disadvantaged groups, and for structural critiques of the gross inequalities in the degrees of freedom with which different individuals and groups engage in food practices. This book was originally published as a special issue of Food, Culture & Society.

Introduction : The Social Life of Food -- Part I. Laying the Groundwork -- Framing Food Investigation -- The Practices of a Meal in Society -- Part II. Current Food Studies in Archaeology -- The Archaeological Study of Food Activities -- Food Economics -- Food Politics : Power and Status -- Part III. Food and Identity : The Potentials of Food Archaeology -- Food in the Construction of Group Identity -- The Creation of Personal Identity : Food, Body and Personhood -- Food Creates Society

This book assembles articles that show how to apply scientific evolutionism to the study of variation in the archaeological record. It delineates the approach to the past in which artefacts are viewed as parts of human phenotypes and thus are subject to selection in the same manner as any somatic feature.

Accompanying CD-ROM contains ... "Nutritrac Nutrition Analysis ..."--Page 4 of cover.