In Food, Power and Agency, editors Jürgen Martschukat and Bryant Simon bring together contributors to explore how food, power and agency contribute to the formation of ‘culinary capital’ around the world. This is a rich and invigorating account of the forces shaping our everyday food and eating practices, both historically and in the present day, finds Gurpinder Lalli

Lalli, Gurpinder

LSE Research Online

Book	Review:	Food,	Power	and	Agency	by	JürgenMartschukat	and	Bryant	SimonIn	Food,	Power	and	Agency,	editors	Jürgen	Martschukat	and	Bryant	Simon	bring	together	contributors	toexplore	how	food,	power	and	agency	contribute	to	the	formation	of	‘culinary	capital’	around	the	world.	This	is	a	richand	invigorating	account	of	the	forces	shaping	our	everyday	food	and	eating	practices,	both	historically	and	in	thepresent	day,	finds	Gurpinder	Lalli.	Food,	Power	and	Agency.	Jürgen	Martschukat	and	Bryant	Simon	(eds).	Bloomsbury.	2017.Find	this	book:	For	those	interested	in	exploring	the	connections	between	food	and	power	relations,Food,	Power	and	Agency	offers	an	invigorating	and	rich	account.	Edited	by	JürgenMartschukat	and	Bryant	Simon,	it	is	made	up	of	eight	key	essays	by	sociologists,historians,	anthropologists	and	cultural	studies	theorists	examining	food	through	aworldwide	lens.	Whilst	the	topics	of	the	chapters	are	distinct,	each	concerns	the	linkbetween	food,	power	and	agency,	which	all	contribute	to	the	formation	of	‘culinarycapital’.The	definition	of	power	presented	by	the	authors	relates	specifically	to	food.	Part	of	thepower	of	food	is	that	it	is	everywhere.	It	creates	endless	notions	of	good	and	bad,including	good	and	bad	food,	good	and	bad	eating	practices	and	good	and	bad	bodies.Food	power	is	not	only	constraining	and	repressive,	but	also	enabling	and	productive	(3).Here,	links	are	made	to	the	work	of	Pierre	Bourdieu,	which	defines	how	‘cultural	capital’inflects	one’s	identity	and	life	chances.	For	instance,	unhealthy	food	choices	follow	a	socioeconomic	gradient	thatmay	partly	be	explained	by	what	is	referred	to	in	this	book	as	‘culinary	capital’.The	structure	and	execution	of	the	book	is	inspired	by	the	work	of	Roland	Barthes	in	‘Toward	a	Psychosociology	ofContemporary	Food	Consumption’.	It	has	been	noted	that	Barthes’s	call	for	a	robust	interdisciplinary	food	studiesinitiative	has	been	overlooked,	particularly	in	the	early	1960s.	Barthes	argued	that	food	is	a	system	and	embodies	asocial	environment	that	is	connected	with	the	past	and	present.	He	also	suggested	that	if	food	ties	us	to	knowledgesystems	and	the	everyday	and	invites	us	to	explore	differences	between	imagined	national	cultures	and	socialgroups,	then	power	is	an	instrumental	ingredient	in	food	and	reflected	by	it	(2).In	recent	years,	research	on	the	study	of	food	has	flourished.	Some	of	the	most	notable	work	has	been	carried	out	onthe	importance	of	food	to	colonisation	processes	and	the	domestic	sphere,	but	work	on	how	power	operates	in	andthrough	food	has	largely	been	neglected	until	studies	by	those	such	as	Charlotte	Biltekoff	(2013)	and	KatharinaVester	(2015),	which	have	begun	to	explore	how	it	operates	in	everyday	food	and	eating	practices.LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Food, Power and Agency by Jürgen Martschukat and Bryant Simon Page 1 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-02-01Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/01/book-review-food-power-and-agency-by-jurgen-martschukat-and-bryant-simon/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/Image	Credit:	(US	Department	of	Agriculture	CC	BY	2.0)Food,	Power	and	Agency	is	divided	into	two	parts.	The	first	section	offers	a	narrative	on	food	and	the	nation.	Overall,these	chapters	show	how	food	becomes	an	agent	of	national	identities	and	is	employed	by	some	to	accumulate‘culinary	capital’	(5).	Chapter	One	examines	the	role	of	food	in	the	development	of	ethnic	German	identities	in	SanFrancisco	during	the	twentieth	century	and	investigates	the	processes	that	shaped	the	development	of	therestaurant.	Restaurants	were	said	to	come	under	scrutiny	for	two	reasons:	they	were	increasingly	operated	byimmigrants;	and	their	rise	meant	less	priority	being	given	to	food-based	establishments	like	the	café,	which	wouldtypically	be	used	for	social	gatherings	amongst	the	middle	classes.Chapter	Two	introduces	the	influence	of	Italian	cuisine	in	Japan.	The	decade	between	1985	and	1995	saw	theemergence	of	the	golden	age	of	Italian	food	in	Japan.	This	chapter	focuses	on	the	role	played	by	culinaryprofessionals	who	exercise	power	in	the	production	and	distribution	of	Italian	cuisine	in	Japan.	This	is	one	of	themany	examples	of	how	‘culinary	capital’	shapes	the	discourse	around	food,	power	and	agency.The	second	part	of	the	book	explores	the	anthropological	position	of	food	and	eating,	and	how	class,	race	andgender	interact	here	to	shape	the	agency	of	the	players	involved	(5).	Chapter	Three	examines	the	representation	ofwaiters	in	restaurants	in	the	work	of	Ernest	Hemingway	to	further	understand	relations	of	power	and	agency	in	theculinary	world	by	exploring	the	narratives	in	which	they	are	bound	and	their	performances	are	evaluated.Chapter	Four,	‘The	Geography	of	Silence:	Food	and	Tragedy	in	Globalizing	America’,	introduces	a	discussion	ofstate	intervention	in	food.	Drawing	on	cases	such	as	the	death	of	workers	in	collapsed	factories	in	Bangladesh,burned	chicken	plants	in	China	and	disintegrating,	uninspected	buildings	in	Philadelphia,	it	describes	how	forworkers,	the	combination	of	private	and	state	power	can	act	as	a	muzzle	that	puts	their	health	and	safety	at	risk	(84).Silencing	around	these	issues	is	sustained	and	fuelled	by	a	global	economy	that	delivers	inexpensive	food	bydeliberately	muffling	the	voices	of	labourers	and	state	regulators	in	order	to	externalise	and	cover	up	the	costs	of	thefood	system	(98).Part	Three	of	the	book	highlights	discourses	on	food	and	health	through	four	chapters,	two	of	which	address	themultifaceted	construction	of	healthy	identities,	while	the	others	discuss	the	moral	and	social	boundaries	of	eating	bylooking	at	different	types	of	fat,	exploring	both	a	sociological	view	and	a	medical	or	nutritional	model	of	food.	ChapterFive	uses	notes	from	diaries	written	by	Roscoe	Maxwell	Rhoads	(from	the	famous	Rhoads	family,	who	were	in	thenewspaper	business),	detailing	the	social	life	and	customs	of	late-nineteenth-century	Indiana	and	early-twentieth-century	Southern	California,	to	focus	on	hygiene,	physical	fitness	and	health	in	the	modern	Western	world	of	self-controlled	individuals.	These	diaries,	typically	including	details	of	dietary	practice	and	daily	caloric	intakes,	are	usedto	develop	the	narrative	concerning	questions	of	food,	power	and	agency.	Rhoads	uses	the	example	of	the	apple	pieto	illustrate	his	agency:	without	striving	to	resist	its	temptation,	there	would	be	no	meaning	in	dieting	and	the	goal	of‘hygienic’	eating.LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Food, Power and Agency by Jürgen Martschukat and Bryant Simon Page 2 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-02-01Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/01/book-review-food-power-and-agency-by-jurgen-martschukat-and-bryant-simon/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/Chapter	Six	continues	along	the	theme	of	the	quest	for	health,	drawing	on	‘running	and	eating	right	in	1970sAmerica’.	In	this	chapter,	fitness	is	established	as	a	powerful	form	of	capital	and,	more	importantly,	is	identified	asbeing	able	to	provide	a	passport	to	‘the	kingdom	of	the	well’	(127).	These	chapters	raise	potentially	new	lines	ofinquiry	with	regards	to	both	historical	and	contemporary	practices	of	what	it	means	to	eat	‘right’.To	return	to	the	original	aims	of	the	book,	emphasis	is	placed	on	the	notion	that	the	power	of	food	is	everywhere.Furthermore,	infinite	notions	of	good	and	bad	are	developed	in	the	context	of	eating	practices	and	the	production	ofbodies.	Overall,	it	is	these	practices	that	are	involved	in	shaping	power	relationships	and,	to	take	the	view	ofBourdieu,	this	can	lead	to	the	accumulation	of	‘culinary	capital’:	the	generation	of	market	value,	social	boundariesand	notions	of	individual	success.For	his	PhD,	Gurpinder	Lalli	carried	out	an	ethnographic	case	study	on	the	social	aspect	of	the	school	meal	whilstadopting	a	social	constructivist	and	Foucauldian	lens	to	explore	the	relationship	between	food	and	power.	For	thisreason,	he	has	since	become	interested	in	exploring	the	social	aspect	of	food.	Read	more	by	Gurpinder	Lalli.Note:	This	review	gives	the	views	of	the	author,	and	not	the	position	of	the	LSE	Review	of	Books	blog,	or	of	theLondon	School	of	Economics.		LSE Review of Books: Book Review: Food, Power and Agency by Jürgen Martschukat and Bryant Simon Page 3 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-02-01Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/01/book-review-food-power-and-agency-by-jurgen-martschukat-and-bryant-simon/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/

Book review: food, power and agency by Jürgen Martschukat and Bryant Simon

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Book review: food, power and agency by Jürgen Martschukat and Bryant Simon

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