Eating practices: Social and cultural aspects of hunger and fullness

TY - BOOK

T1 - Eating practices

T2 - Social and cultural aspects of hunger and fullness

AU - Christensen, Bodil Just

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - The objective of the thesis is to describe and discuss how hunger and fullness are practiced (Mol and Law 2004), and emerge as multiple objects (Mol 2002). Within a theoretical framework inspired by Actor Network Theory and material semiotics, this is accomplished through a critical discussion and analysis focusing on bodily sensations and engagements, touching upon three themes: 1) nutritional knowledge and its relation to bodily engagement, pleasure and agency; 2) conceptualisations of ‘good food’ through bodily aesthetic evaluations and 3) how engrained bodily routines become obstacles to dietary changes. Methodologically the work is based on multi-site ethnographic study comprising three fieldworks among a) conscripts doing basic military training; b) an experimental performance theatre combining high-end gastronomy with performance and c) patients who have gone through obesity surgery at a public hospital. Through notions of partiality (Strathern 1991), multiplicity (Mol 2002) and performativity (Law 1999) the thesis attempts to develop a novel approach by drawing on aspects of material semiotics and Actor Network Theory, yet combining these with a more ethnographic orientation. In so doing, the work offers an implicit critique both of much of the sociology of food and the science of food and nutrition.

AB - The objective of the thesis is to describe and discuss how hunger and fullness are practiced (Mol and Law 2004), and emerge as multiple objects (Mol 2002). Within a theoretical framework inspired by Actor Network Theory and material semiotics, this is accomplished through a critical discussion and analysis focusing on bodily sensations and engagements, touching upon three themes: 1) nutritional knowledge and its relation to bodily engagement, pleasure and agency; 2) conceptualisations of ‘good food’ through bodily aesthetic evaluations and 3) how engrained bodily routines become obstacles to dietary changes. Methodologically the work is based on multi-site ethnographic study comprising three fieldworks among a) conscripts doing basic military training; b) an experimental performance theatre combining high-end gastronomy with performance and c) patients who have gone through obesity surgery at a public hospital. Through notions of partiality (Strathern 1991), multiplicity (Mol 2002) and performativity (Law 1999) the thesis attempts to develop a novel approach by drawing on aspects of material semiotics and Actor Network Theory, yet combining these with a more ethnographic orientation. In so doing, the work offers an implicit critique both of much of the sociology of food and the science of food and nutrition.

UR - https://soeg.kb.dk/permalink/45KBDK_KGL/fbp0ps/alma99122981720905763

M3 - Ph.D. thesis

BT - Eating practices

PB - Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

ER -