The Moral Economy of Eating

• In Event: 568 - Regular Session. Health, Class, and Inequality

Abstract

This study outlines and illustrates a new, multilevel perspective on the effect of class on food consumption. Through in-depth interviews and extended ethnographies in one food dense neighborhood of Oakland, California, I develop a theory called the moral economy of eating that shows how structure, culture and identity work simultaneously to inform individual relationships with food. Three categories of eaters are discussed - pleasure filled foodies, self-disciplining deal seekers, and alienated comfort eaters. In this moral economy of eating, class inequalities are fortified in powerful ways.

Author

• Kara Alexis Young, University of California, Berkeley