Jackson, P.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-3654-1891 and Meah, A. (2019) Taking humor seriously in contemporary food research. Food, Culture, and Society, 22 (3). pp. 262-279. ISSN 1552-8014
Abstract
This paper highlights the social significance of humour in everyday interactions with food within families and related household contexts. The paper approaches humour in relational terms, emphasising its role in negotiating the way power is exercised within the moralized context of “feeding the family”. Having reviewed previous work on the social significance of humour, the paper provides some examples of food-related humour from recent research with British food consumers, illustrating what such occasions reveal about participants’ relations with each other, with us as researchers, and with the food they consume. Specifically, participants were found to use apologetic and self-deprecating humour to negotiate the moral ambiguities of food and to cover potentially embarrassing situations; to express familiarity and disgust regarding their current consumption practices; and to excuse potentially shameful behaviour or guilty pleasures. The paper argues that an understanding of the “background disposition” through which consumers make sense of their multiple encounters with food is critical to the analysis of food-related humour and that ethnographic methods are particularly adept at revealing the social context in which humour occurs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Association for the Study of Food and Society. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Food, Culture and Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Food consumption; humour; background disposition; moralization |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Sheffield Teaching Hospitals |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS FO0459 ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ES/N009649/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 Jan 2019 15:09 |
Last Modified: | 25 Nov 2021 11:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/15528014.2019.1580535 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:141118 |