Lecture 4 Eating and Drinking

The fourth session on Friday October 24th will concern the most important processes that sustain us: eating and drinking. We will explore the role of technology in changing the relationships between humans, animals and foodstuffs, as well as the changing social practices and cultural meanings associated with food.

As ever with the module, the particular topic should be used as an example with wider lessons for your essay topic, suggesting potentially useful concepts and methods of analysis.

For example, many of you have been asked to read this widely cited piece which has lessons extending well beyond the analysis of the particular fruit in question: Cook, I. (2004) Follow the Thing: Papaya, Antipode, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 642-664.

Ian Cook has developed a wider online resource, applying the methodology in that paper: Follow the Things.

Think about why you eat and drink in the ways you do, where the ingredients come from, what kinds of creative and making processes you (or the cook/manufacturer/restaurant/store) deploy in transforming an array of material items into food and drink.

In addition you might wish to reflect on some of the emergent countercultural practices around food, for example the Slow Food Movement.