Class, Food, Culture Exploring ‘Alternative’ Food Consumption by Jessica Paddock Cardiff University This thesis on submitted to Cardiff University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY September 2011 i DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed …………………………………………………………. (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed …………………………………………………………. (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. Signed …………………………………………………………. (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed …………………………………………………………. (candidate) Date ………………………… i Acknowledgements There are many who are to be thanked for their support in helping me to start, write-up and submit this thesis. First of all, thank you to the participants, producers, volunteers and stakeholders who made this research both fun as well as feasible. I am also very grateful to my supervisors Professor Susan Baker and Dr. Bella Dicks for being generous with their time, patience and kindness. Everyone in SOCSI has made the experience of doing a doctorate a pleasurable one. Thanks to Dr. Tom Hall and Dr. Ian Welsh for their input along the way. None of this would have been possible without a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council. Supporting me have been my family and friends. I‟m grateful to them all, particularly my parents, for their encouragement. Thanks to Helen, Jaz, Graham, Zoe and Jamie for helping me to get the thesis handed in, and to Jaz and Sam for putting a roof over my head when I needed it. ii Abstract Contributing empirically, methodologically and conceptually to the body of work that remains unconvinced of the „death of class‟ (Pahl 1989), this thesis explores the resonance of class culture in contemporary „alternative‟ food practice. Indeed, arising from disenchantment with conventional industrial food production and supply chains, „alternative‟ food networks aim to provide a means to reconnect consumers, producers and food (Kneafsey et al. 2008). By taking seriously the act of shopping for food as culturally meaningful and not merely a practice of routinely provisioning the home (Lunt and Livingstone 1992) this thesis then argues that „alternative‟ food practice provides a platform for the performance of class identities. That is, both structurally and culturally, class is thought to matter to people (Sayer 2011), and is elucidated and reproduced through food practice. By means of mixed methods data collection; participant observation, survey, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, this study provides support for a Bourdieusian approach to class analysis. In particular, the thesis makes use of Bourdieu‟s toolkit of concepts by conceiving of class as a relative „position‟. This is understood to be achieved via the moral derision of the „other‟, where participants draw moral boundaries between „good‟ and „bad‟ foods and the „good‟ or „bad‟ who partake in its consumption. In this way, the field of „alternative‟ food practice seems not only ground from which to observe class. Rather, „alternative‟ food is understood to be appropriated as a resource of „distinction‟ (Bourdieu 1984) that is then figured in the very maintenance and reproduction of class culture. This interface between class, food and culture may prove consequential for those seeking substantive alternatives to conventional foodways. Crucially, it is argued that by imagining less socially and culturally uniform strategies to promote „alternative‟ food practice, we may unlock their potential to provide an equitable and sustainable food future. To this end, by elucidating the moral significance of class in the field of „alternative‟ food practice, this thesis has wider implications in carving a role for sociological enquiry in the emerging field of „sustainability science‟ (Marsden 2011). iii Table of Contents Chapter One ............................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Context ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Sociology, Environmental Change and Consumer „Choice‟ ........................................... 4 1.3 „Alternative‟ Food Consumption: An Appetite for Change? ........................................... 5 1.4 Research Design and Research Questions ....................................................................... 9 1.4.1 How is alternative food consumption accomplished? .............................................. 9 1.4.2 How does class figure in „alternative‟ food practice? ............................................... 9 1.5 The Research Sites ......................................................................................................... 10 1.6 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................................. 11 Chapter Two............................................................................................................................. 14 Consuming the „Alternative‟: Food, Class and the Resurgence of Distinction? ..................... 14 2.1 Social Science, Food and Class ..................................................................................... 15 2.1.1 The Social Science of Food Choice ........................................................................ 15 2.1.2 Class, Food and Nutrition ....................................................................................... 16 2.1.3 The Origins of Food in Sociological Analysis ........................................................ 18 2.1.4 Food as an Expression of Civility ........................................................................... 22 2.2 Changing Food Choices and the Problem of Variety .................................................... 24 2.2.1 Changing Tastes ...................................................................................................... 24 2.3 Distinction ...................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.1 Bourdieu and „Distinction‟ ..................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 „Distinction‟ After Bourdieu ................................................................................... 29 2.3.3 Distinction - Eating In ............................................................................................. 34 2.3.4 Distinction - Eating Out .......................................................................................... 40 2.4 Class, Food and Sites of Consumption .......................................................................... 45 2.4.1 Class on the British High Street .............................................................................. 45 2.4.2 Invoking „Tradition‟................................................................................................ 47 2.4.3 Emerging „Alternatives‟ .......................................................................................... 48 Chapter Three........................................................................................................................... 53 The Moral Significance of Class.............................................................................................. 53 3.1 The Analysis of Class and Consumption in British Sociology ...................................... 53 3.1.1 Context - Identity Formation and the „Death of Class‟........................................... 53 3.1.2 Class and Consumption .......................................................................................... 54 iv 3.2 Position Taking in the Social Field ................................................................................ 57 3.2.1 Habitus, Field and Capitals ..................................................................................... 57 3.2.2 Relational Thinking - Class and Homology............................................................ 63 3.3 Critical Amendments ..................................................................................................... 65 3.3.1 Dis-identification: An Analytical Quandary ........................................................... 65 3.3.2 The Subjective/Objective Dualism ......................................................................... 66 3.3.3 Lay Normativity and the Moral Significance of Class ........................................... 67 3.3.4 The „Posh‟ and the „Good‟ ...................................................................................... 69 3.4 Direction of the Thesis ................................................................................................... 71 Chapter Four ...........................................................................................................................