A Sociology of Food and Nutrition: The Social Appetite, 2d ed.(Book review)

A SOCIOLOGY OF FOOD AND NUTRITION: THE SOCIAL APPETITE (2ND EDN) John Germov and Lauren Williams (eds) Victoria: Oxford University Press 2004: 350 pp BP AUD59.95/USD45.20/GBP25.35 ISBN 0-19-551625-7

Germov and William's second edition of A Sociology of Food and Nutrition: The Social Appetite (2004) provides an important update in the expanding field of food sociology. As the editors note, several texts have appeared since the first edition in 1999, and the new thematic format of the book aims to include some of this new literature and accompanying theoretical developments. Changes to this edition include a revised structure, an updated introductory chapter, and a number of new chapters reflecting developments in key areas such as biotechnology, agribusiness, economic change and the social construction of eating disorders. There are now five sections which pivot around key sociological themes. Aptly described as a 'potlatch of topics' (p.xi), these key themes include the food system, food and public health nutrition, food and social differentiation, and food and the body. In addition, the useful pedagogic features have been revised and include updates of the appendix, investigative questions for each chapter and web sources, and a new Social Appetite website.

In recognition of the interdisciplinary nature of studying food and nutrition, one aim is to introduce a multidisciplinary readership to sociological enquiries into food (p.1). The editors represent sociology and nutrition, and almost all the contributing authors in the volume demonstrate the value of crossing these once sharply-demarcated disciplinary boundaries. While this collaboration is to be highly commended, it is questionable whether the book takes full advantage of a multidisciplinary perspective. Given that the disciplines of anthropology and sociology share the so-called founding fathers (Durkheim, Weber and Marx and more contemporary theorists such as Bourdieu), it is surprising that anthropology is only given a passing nod in this work. As Mintz and Du Bois (2002) note in their review of the study of food and eating, anthropology has a long history in this field. On this note, Dixon's analysis of supermarket power is a welcome addition to the revised volume, as she explicitly draws upon ethnographic techniques and anthropological theory (such as Appadurai), in order to investigate the distribution and exchange of foods and food-related services (p.100). A text entitled A Sociology of Food and Nutrition should be orientated to the discipline of sociology, and I felt it a serious omission to ignore the close relationship with anthropology (particularly when several authors employ ethnographic research methods).

Underpinning the book's teaching premise is the use of Mills' (1959) sociological imagination. The four arms of the template (historical, cultural, structural and critical) are separated to provide different explanations of a particular sociological problem. While sociological imagination is useful for those new-to-sociological approaches, I agree with the editors (p.8) when they caution that the template 'simplifies the process of sociological analysis', for it falsely separates components of the social world which are intimately connected in everyday life.

The separation of 'culture' from history and structure is a particularly worrying and spurious division. As it is singularly represented in the sociological imagination and in A Sociology of Food and Nutrition, culture is synonymous with an outmoded concept of 'tradition' or 'custom', rather than a broader understanding of cultures as patterns of behaviours, beliefs and symbolic systems acquired in a social context and shared (contested and adapted) through social relationships. For example, in her chapter entitled 'Culture, Food and Nutrition In Increasingly Culturally Diverse Societies', Ikeda rests her analysis on a fixed, structuralist assumption of 'western' and 'traditional' cultures. 'Traditional cultures' (read 'non-western') are represented as spiritual, more holistic and able to call on a wide range of 'alternative' forms of healing. Despite recognition that 'societies . are increasingly culturally pluralistic' (p.305), the use of dichotomous ...