SOC349 Sociology of Food

"The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues explores the topic of food across multiple disciplines within the social sciences and related areas including business, consumerism, marketing, and environmentalism. In contrast to the existing reference works on the topic of food that tend to fall into the categories of cultural perspectives, this carefully balanced academic encyclopedia focuses on social and policy aspects of food production, safety, regulation, labeling, marketing, distribution, and consumption." - Description from publisher

"This Encyclopedia offers a definitive source on issues pertaining to the full range of topics in the important new area of food and agricultural ethics. It includes summaries of historical approaches, current scholarship, social movements, and new trends from the standpoint of the ethical notions that have shaped them." - Description from publisher

"The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America... covers the significant events, inventions, and social movements that have shaped the way Americans view, prepare, and consume food and drink. Entries range across historical periods and the trends that characterize them, from the extravagant feasts of the Gilded Age to the diet fads of the nineties." - Description from publisher

"The Oxford Book of Health Foods is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and scientifically based guide to a variety of foods associated with good health. From fruits, herbs, and grains to vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements, this resource offers not only the claims associated with each food, but also the scientific truths behind these claims." - Description from publisher

This book "includes both an exhaustive catalogue of foods – whether they be biscuits named for battles, divas or revolutionaries, body parts from nose to tail, toe to cerebellum, or breads from the steppes of Asia or the well-built ovens of the Mediterranean – and a richly allusive commentary on the culture of food, whether expressed in literature and cookery books, or as dishes peculiar to a country or community." - Description from publisher

"This book explores the complex interrelationships between food and agriculture, politics, and society... Furthermore, the book examines the tendency to address the new organization of global civil society around food, its production, distribution, and consequences for the least powerful within the context of the North-South divide; the problems of malnutrition as opposed to poverty, food insecurity, and food shortages, as well as the widespread undernutrition in developing countries; and how biotechnology can be used to ensure a sustainable human future by addressing global problems such as human population growth, pollution, climate change, and limited access to clean water and other basic food production resources." - Description from publisher

"This book chronicles the history of food. It starts with the Columbian Exchange, a term coined in 1972 by the historian Alfred Crosby to refer to the flow of plants, animals and microbes across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. It then explores the spice trade during the medieval period, the social biography and politics of food, and how food history is connected with race and ethnicity in the United States. The book also focuses on cookbooks as an important primary source for historians; contemporary food ethics, ethical food consumerism, and “ethical food consumption”; the link between food and social movements; the emerging critical nutrition studies; the relationship between food and gender and how gender can enlighten the study of food activism; the relationship between food and religion; the debates over food as they have developed within geography in both the English- and French-speaking worlds; food history as part of public history; culinary tourism; national cuisines; food regimes analysis; how the Annales School in France has shaped the field of food history; the role of food in anthropology; a global history of fast food, focusing on the McDonald's story; industrial foods; and the merits of food studies and its lessons for sociology. In addition, the book assesses the impact of global food corporations' domination in the contemporary era, which in many ways can be seen as the equivalent of the European and American empire of the past." - Description from publisher

"This book considers the interconnected issues of real water in the environment and “virtual water” in food value chains and investigates how society influences both fields. This perspective draws out considerable challenges for food security and for environmental stewardship in the context of ongoing global change. The book also discusses these issues by region and with global overviews of selected commodities." - Description from publisher

"The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Food Consumption and Policy provides an overview of the economics of food consumption and policy relevant to the areas of food and agriculture and policy making." - Description from publisher

"This multicultural and interdisciplinary reference brings a fresh social and cultural perspective to the global history of food, foodstuffs, and cultural exchange from the age of discovery to contemporary times. Comprehensive in scope, this two-volume encyclopedia covers agriculture and industry, food preparation and regional cuisines, science and technology, nutrition and health, and trade and commerce, as well as key contemporary issues such as famine relief, farm subsidies, food safety, and the organic movement. Articles also include specific foodstuffs such as chocolate, potatoes, and tomatoes; topics such as Mediterranean diet and the Spice Route; and pivotal figures such as Marco Polo, Columbus, and Catherine de' Medici." - Description from publisher

"Throwing new light on how colonisation and globalization have affected the food practices of different communities in Asia, the Routledge Handbook of Food in Asia explores the changes and variations in the region’s dishes, meals and ways of eating." - Description from publisher

"This Handbook provides a systematic guide to the current state of knowledge on sustainable food. It begins by analyzing the historical development surrounding food production and consumption, then moves on to discuss the current food crisis and challenges as well as the impacts linked to modern agriculture and food security. Finally, it concludes with a section that examines emerging sustainable food trends and movements in addition to an analysis of current food science innovations." - Description from publisher

"Arranged chronologically, this title contains 17 originally commissioned chapters by experts in food history or related topics. Each chapter focuses on a particular theme, idea or issue in the history of food. The case studies discussed in these essays illuminate the more general trends of the period, providing the reader with insight into the large-scale and dramatic changes in food history through an understanding of how these developments sprang from a specific geographic and historical context." - Description from publisher

"Introduced by the editor and including original articles by over thirty leading food scholars from around the world, the Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies offers students, scholars and all those interested in food-related research a one-stop, easy-to-use reference guide. Each article includes a brief history of food research within a discipline or on a particular topic, a discussion of research methodologies and ideological or theoretical positions, resources for research, including archives, grants and fellowship opportunities, as well as suggestions for further study." - Description from publisher

"This Handbook represents the most comprehensive compilation of our current knowledge of food and nutrition security from a global perspective. It is organized to reflect the wide scope of the contents, its four sections corresponding to the accepted current definitional frameworks prevailing in the work of multilateral agencies and mainstream scholarship." - Description from publisher

"This handbook includes contributions from established and emerging scholars from around the world and draws on multiple approaches and subjects to explore the socio-economic, cultural, ecological, institutional, legal, and policy aspects of regenerative food practices." - Description from publisher

"The Routledge History of American Foodways provides an important overview of the main themes surrounding the history of food in the Americas from the pre-colonial era to the present day." - Description from publisher

"The ways in which the rapid urbanization of the Global South is transforming food systems and food supply chains, and the food security of urban populations is an often neglected topic. This international group of authors addresses this profound transformation from a variety of different perspectives and disciplinary lenses, providing an important corrective to the dominant view that food insecurity is a rural problem requiring increases in agricultural production." - Description from publisher

"This Handbook provides insights to the ways in which globalisation is affecting the whole agri-food system from farms to the consumer. It covers themes including the physical basis of agriculture, the influence of trade policies, the nature of globalised agriculture, and resistance to globalisation in the form of attempts to foster greater sustainability and multifunctional agricultural systems." - Description from publisher