Sociology of Food: Wait, What?

In short, Sociology of food is the study of food in Society, but what does it mean? Well...

Hello, Welcome to Kitchen and letters.

Before we move on to other important stories, I thought that it was best to start writing about this big word: Why did I study Sociology and what is Sociology of food? The truth is that I was about 21, all I knew was that I wanted to study something academic, even when it was not going to bring big bucks to the table. I was a bit (very much) lost, I had to make a move, start doing more than just working and partying. I started going to the local library to take aptitude tests so I could decide what University degree was best for me, each time the result was Sociology and I took it 3 times. I started to read about it and I though: Well it can be the foundation of something bigger, the bridge to something bigger, also it gave me the opportunity to learn to research and write, things that I wanted to explore further.

Sociology according to Wikipedia is: the study of human behavior. Sociology refers to #social behaviour, #society, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and #culture that surrounds everyday life. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and #socialchange. Sociology can also be defined as the general science of society. While some sociologists conduct research that may be applied directly to #socialpolicy and #welfare others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes. Subject matter can range from micro-level analyses of society (i.e., of individual interaction and agency) to macro-level analyses (i.e., of systems and the #socialstructure).

I know if can sound a it too much and a bit on the boring side, that is why I wanted to write about it at the beginning, don't think that this blog is going to be a heavy read. My hope is to bring theories similar to this to your morning table in a language that is easy to digest for all.

During my university years I was working for a big restaurant company in central London, the Conran Group, Mezzo in Wardour st in Soho. Here I met many great people which I can still call friends, even with the distance. We were working long night shifts with loud music and lots of people. At the time it was a hip restaurant in the middle of Soho, with movie premiers and many hip social events happening.

Working in restaurant, it can either be hell or a romance. For me it has been a bit of both.

Anyway, one day while on a semester abroad in Barcelona, my best friend Miriam and I went for a meal, and it was then, after unconsciously talking about food and the restaurant capacity for the last 10 minutes, that day Miriam had enough and finally said: And there you are busting my ass about what to write for your thesis, when all you can and love to talk about is food; Study food in society or something, but I don't want to hear it unless you do something about it, I'm pretty sure that there is something you can research about. That was it, we wrote the first paragraph of my thesis proposal in a restaurant. Sociology of Food, I know it can sound overwhelming and I did think it was at times. There has been many times that I got lost in translation trying to understand why I chose such subject of study, not only Sociology, but to go deeper in society to study how we related to food, with food and anything that involves food and people.

What Miriam said to me that night stayed with me. I realized that I have been secretly analyzing people at restaurants, creating my personal theories in head. Understanding every theory that I was studying and applying it to how people share and ate food together.

Now that we understand Sociology or at least a bit of it lets move to Sociology of food. From the moment we are conceived we are food! Thank of food and the quality of food we eat we are here, present, reading, socializing. Thank to food eat we are healthy, we are close or far from culture, our decisions count, and in other words that is Sociology of food.

At the beginning I did even knew the term existed. I chose the subject of food because it was in my blood, I guess other way to put it it was my calling. As a Sociology student, what it was expected from me was to specialize in something such as: gender, politics, social minorities, migration, etc. But that was easy, there was plenty of information out there about that and everyone was touching those subjects.

I decided to specialise in food at moment of my life where I felt the least connect to it.

Well to get back to the subject( as my thesis profesor used to say), according to wikipedia : Sociology of food is the study of food as it relates to the history, progression, and future development of society. This includes production, preparation, consumption, distribution, conflict, medical application, ritual, spiritual, ethical, and cultural applications, environmental and labor issues.

The aspect of food distribution in our society can be examined through the analysis of the changes in the food supply chain. Globalization in particular, has significant effects on the food supply chain by enabling scale effect in the food distribution industry.

Sociology of food studies basically everything that involves people with socialisation and food.

Little that I knew specializing in Sociology of food was putting together all the subjects of gender, inequalities, culture, politics in one subject: Food.

Later in the blog I will write something about most aspects of Sociology of food and how its shown in your everyday life. Little information that you will start noticing everywhere you go.

So, with further due... Let's start!

Thank you for reading.

In good food,

Iliana Lanuza