SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF FOOD BEHAVIOUR: AN ANALYSIS OF RECENT TRENDS IN BRITAIN

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The paper reviews post‐war trends in food consumption in Britain based on an analysis of the annual National Food Surveys. Long‐term trends are distinguished from the consequences of short‐term shortages and changing welfare and subsidy policies. The data are used in particular to illustrate the interaction between social class and family size effects. In the second half of the paper emergent food trends are considered in the light of three sets of factors: economic and political, technological, and social and cultural. It is concluded that food behaviour is fundamentally a social phenomenon imbued with cultural significance and meaning, and reflecting traditional beliefs and values and dominant power differentials both within families and between different social groups.