Unpacking fun food and children’s leisure:mothers’ perspectives on preparing lunchboxes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between lunchboxes, fun food and leisure. Looking beyond concerns focusing solely on health and nutrition, this article unpacks how mothers seek to provide lunchtime food that is also a source of leisure and pleasure. Design/methodology/approach – Photo-elicitation interviews and a focus group were conducted with 11 mothers who regularly prepare lunchboxes for their children aged between 9 and 11 years. Findings – Mothers intend the food they provide to act as a leisure experience and a break from the pressures of school. Mothers understand that lunchboxes must fit with children’s other activities taking place in their lunch-hour. Lunchboxes should support children’s future leisure opportunities by providing nutrition and variety to support their growth and development. The discussion of lunchboxes also shows that fun food is not simply understood in opposition to healthy food. Mothers have a wider understanding of the transgressive nature of fun through food, which goes beyond the market offer and understanding of fun. Research limitations/implications – As the study is based on a small sample of relatively affluent families in the UK, caution is needed in generalising the findings to wider groups. However, the study offers qualitative insights and highlights the connections between leisure, fun food and lunchboxes that can be explored in further research. Originality/value – This is the first paper to explore the interconnections between lunchboxes, fun food and leisure. It provides valuable insight into mothers’ views about food prepared at home for consumption at school.</p

Coping with Coping:International migrants’ experiences of the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK

Globally, policymakers have overlooked the challenges faced by international migrants in host countries during the Covid-19 pandemic. The policies and support systems designed by host governments highlight the lack of social justice and raise concerns for scholarly attention. Considering the experiences of international migrants living in the UK during the Covid-19 lockdown from the theoretical perspective of coping, this interpretivist study investigates international migrants’ coping strategies adopted during the first UK national lockdown. Data collected from 60 Chinese, Italian and Iranian migrants using semi-structured interviews during the lockdown period were analysed thematically using NVivo. The findings show that migrants adopted multi-layered and multi-phase coping strategies. To cope with the anxiety and uncertainties caused by the pandemic, they initiated new practices informed by both home and host institution logics. Nevertheless, the hostile context's responses provoked unexpected new worries and triggered the adoption of additional and compromising practices. The paper illustrates how coping became paradoxical because migrants had to cope with the hostile reactions that their initial coping strategies provoked in the host environment. By introducing the new concept of coping with coping, this paper extends previous theoretical debate and leads to several managerial implications for governments and policymakers.</p

Little emperors in the UK: Acculturation and food over time

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Business Research. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier B.V.This paper investigates the acculturation process of a group of Chinese students living in the UK. It emerges from a longitudinal study looking at how participants' social ties affect their food consumption. Drafting from an interpretive study using focus groups discussions, it shows that participants' food consumption patterns change over time in relation to participants' social ties. Three acculturation phases have been individuated. They show that ethnic and non-ethnic ties influence participants' acculturation process. Students with strong ethnic ties consume Chinese food for maintaining their ethnic identity and resisting host food culture. Students with weak ethnic ties consume Chinese food to maintain their ethnic identity and global consumer culture food to resist host food culture. Participants with strong non-ethnic ties have a wider knowledge of host food culture, but they do not consume it more than students with weak non-ethnic ties

Nigellissima: A Study of Glamour, Performativity and Embodiment

This is a study of glamour, its complexities and its relationship with and role within celebrity culture. We explore glamour in the context of Nigella, the London-born TV cook, food writer and self-proclaimed ‘domestic goddess’ of British culinary culture. In our study we consider the interconnections between glamour, specifically Italian-style retro-glamour, and performativity in Nigella’s career. We also address the role of embodiment and authenticity in the masquerade of femininity. Our analysis focuses on Nigella’s glamour over time, considering its creation, enactment and reaffirmation following scandal. We conclude by speculating on glamour’s complex and ambivalent relationship with celebrity culture, and the role of vulnerability in creating authentic and enduring glamour in contemporary consumer society