Food, Power, and Agency

Description

Grounded in the work of Roland Barthes, Bruno Latour, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel Foucault, this exciting book uses food as a lens to examine agency and the political, economic, social, and cultural power which underlies every choice of food and every act of eating. The book is divided into three parts - National Characters; Anthropological Situations; Health – with each of the eight chapters exploring the power of food as well as the power relationships reflected and refracted through food. Featuring contributions from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural studies scholars from around the world, the book offers case studies of a diverse range -from German cuisine and ethnicity in San Francisco after the Gold Rush, through Italian cuisine in Japan, to 'ultragreasy bureks' and teenage fast food consumption in Slovenia. By directly engaging with questions of agency and power, the book pushes the field of food studies in new directions. An important read for students and researchers in food studies, food history, anthropology of food, and sociology of food. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Food, Power, and Agency Notes Part One National characters 1 The power of food: Immigrant German restaurants in San Francisco and the formation of ethnic identities* Eating German in San Francisco Ethnicity, cuisine, and restaurants among German immigrants in San Francisco German “specials” at the Heidelberg Inn and the Bismarck Café Spatial dynamics Between the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “Die Wacht am Rhein”: Music at German restaurants Transitioning into the mainstream: From the Hof Bräu Café to the States Restaurant The power of food—the power of malleability Notes 2 Italian cuisine in Japan and the power of networking among cooks Italian cuisine at home and away Italian cuisine and Japan The Napoli pizza and the pizzaiolo Conclusions Notes Part Two Anthropological situations 3 Waiters, writers, and power: From dining room commanders to the emotional proletariat Agency and the “factotum” In the shadow of the waitress Orwell, Sartre, and the age of the open kitchen In command: African American waiters, 1904 Restaurant struggles Notes 4 The geography of silence: Food and tragedy in globalizing America Notes Part Three Health 5 Making food matter: “Scientific eating” and the struggle for healthy selves “Hydropathic pudding is positively awful”: Scientific eating in Battle Creek and elsewhere “Had very bad night. Also had ½ cake Hershey’s almond chocolate”: Eating and writing as technologies of the self The agency of apple pie à la mode Notes 6 “What diet can do”: Running and eating right in 1970s America Introduction Some preliminary remarks on Runner’s World and the meaning of running Eating right in everyday life Eating right before a race Drinking right during a race “The good, the bad, and the edible” Notes 7 Being too big—as deviance from the societal order Ways of exerting of power Why the concept of stigmatization is insufficient Social order and its legitimation: A theoretical framework The research project: Relatively big youth Big rock candy mountain: An “inverse” world The proverbial land where milk and honey flow The “inverse” for the “real” world Power of legitimate orders Notes 8 When the grease runs through the paper: On the consumption of ultragreasy bureks Before the paper gets greasy Greasy junk food When the grease runs through the paper So that the paper will be more than just greasy Conclusion or a few more greasy stains List of Contributors Index