CHANGING FAMILIES, CHANGING FOOD.pptVIP

Changing Families, Changing Food Programme Summary Peter Jackson, University of Sheffield Changing Families, Changing Food Conclusion of a three-year, inter-disciplinary research programme funded by The Leverhulme Trust (F/00 118/AQ) Focus on contemporary Britain with some historical and international comparisons 15 inter-related projects, organised into three research strands, across the life-course. Why families and food? Food is a powerful lens through which to view recent changes in family life A means of addressing the diversity of family life: variations between families (class, ethnicity, place…) dynamics within families (gender, generation…) different family types (singles, nuclear, extended…) changing family contexts (historical, cultural…) The project offers a new perspective on family life, transcending disciplinary boundaries and challenging received ideas about ‘the family’. ‘The family’ in contemporary Britain No such thing as ‘the family’ (single, timeless, homogeneous entity) It is a ‘falsely monolithic’ concept (Marjorie De Vault, Feeding the family, 1991) And yet the (nuclear) family remains a powerful normative social ideal, underpinned by strong institutional structures and capable of exerting considerable moral force Strength of relationship between family and food also revealed in our work with homeless people where quasi-familial relations were created in institutional settings through ‘home cooking’ and networks of ‘fictive kin’. Family diversity Families have always taken diverse forms including (since 1945) increases in: single-person households cohabiting couples divorced and separated couples step families gay and lesbian couples the archetypal nuclear family (where husband, wife and children live together under the same roof) currently comprises less than a third (27.5%) of UK families. ‘Doing family’ De Vault: ‘a ‘family’ is not a naturally occurring collection of individuals; its reality is constructed from day to day through ac