Julie M. Parsons

When convenience is inconvenient: ‘healthy’ family foodways and the persistent intersectionalities of gender and class

This article draws on findings from an auto/biographical study about relationships with food to demonstrate how everyday foodways continue to be influenced by the intersectionalities of gender and class. Following Bourdieu [1984. Distinction, a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge] how ‘foodies’ use food and foodways (the production, preparation, serving and eating of food) as a material and cultural display of capital (Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. 2010. Foodies, democracy and distinction in the gourmet kitchen. London: Routledge) or even ‘culinary capital’ (Naccarato, P., & LeBesco, K. 2012. Culinary capital. London: Berg) has been demonstrated. There has been less work exploring how mothers use ‘feeding the family’ (DeVault, M. I. 1991. Feeding the family. London: University of Chicago Press) as a source of cultural capital for themselves. Three-quarters of the 75 respondents in my UK study were parents and all mothers with dependant children fed their family ‘healthy’ food as a means of performing a particular middle-class habitus. I therefore examine how mothers engaged in ‘healthy’ foodwork as a means of positioning themselves as ‘good’ mothers or ‘yummy mummies’ (Allen, K., & Osgood, J. 2009. Studies in the Maternal, 1). Indeed, despite decades of gender equality in the public sphere and neo-liberal assertions regarding individualism, ‘feeding the family’ (DeVault, 1991) continues to be a highly gendered activity, with the added pressure of now having to provide ‘healthy’ food cooked from scratch. In these accounts, convenience foods and/or ‘unhealthy’ family foodways were vilified and viewed with disgust, with an adherence to ‘healthy’ family foodways used as a means of drawing boundaries within fields of ‘organised striving’ (Martin, J. 2011. On the explanation of social action, Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Savage, M., & Silva, E. B. 2013. Cultural Sociology, 7, 111–126). This article considers ‘healthy’ foodwork as a significant aspect of ‘good’ middle-class mothering, whereby ‘healthy’ family foodways become significant in the performance and display of ‘proper’ middle-class femininity that pathologises alternative family foodways and ‘other’ femininities. This serves to illuminate continuities within the intersectionalities of gender and class, with a commitment to ‘healthy’ family foodways central to ‘future oriented’ (middle classed) maternal identity.

Engaging homeless individuals in discussion about their food experiences to optimise wellbeing: A pilot study

Objective: High levels of social and economic deprivation are apparent in many UK cities, where there is evidence of certain ‘marginalised’ communities suffering disproportionately from poor nutrition, threatening health. Finding ways to engage with these communities is essential to identify strategies to optimise wellbeing and life skills. The Food as a Lifestyle Motivator project aimed to pilot creative methods among homeless adults for the examination of food-related experiences in order to facilitate their engagement in the wellbeing discourse. Design: Creative Participatory Action Research methods including Photo-Elicitation. Setting: A homeless service provider in Plymouth, UK. Method: A sample of homeless service users took photographs of their food activities over a 10-day period, and then volunteered to share their photos in focus group discussions to elicit meaning related to their food experiences. Results: Five themes were generated from nine service user narratives, demonstrating that food holds meaning, elicits emotions and exerts power. The food environment can be a critical social meeting place and food preparation can provide companionship and occupation. Conclusion: As well as being central to many health concerns, food may also be a powerful way to motivate people to change their lifestyle. The participatory methods used in this pilot hold potential to engage effectively with harder-to-reach service users. Discussions about their wellbeing indicate food as a powerful ‘catalyst’ for inclusion with the potential to empower individuals. The study serves to inform health education practice, design of services and address (nutritional) health inequalities.

Employing Participatory Methods to Engage an Under-Researched Group: opportunities and challenges

In this article, we report on our experience of working on an exploratory project where the primary objective was to involve homeless service users with food-based participatory qualitative approaches. The project FLM aimed to explore food experiences and behaviours in a sample of users of homelessness services in a south west UK coastal city, in order to create solutions to improve their wellbeing. A mixture of qualitative methods was used, including observations, photo-elicitation and focus group discussions. We aimed to be participatory and ‘creative’ in our approach and in our analysis. Here, we focus on detailing and critiquing our approach to the collection and analysis of data.