What are the factors that govern our food choices at the beginning of the 21st century? Obvious
answers to this question would point to social and cultural habits but the issue is far more
complex than this. Changes in national and international economies the end of political
regimes migration but also micro-events such as retirement the birth of a child varying
school times and seasons or innovations in industrial design these are all potential factors
that may generate a transformation of family eating habits. The meso- and micro-social levels
are deeply intertwined in everyday life and this book focuses on the connections between the
two levels and on how they merge and overlap in the creation of new eating habits. In this book
the reader will find scholars who analyse how families and households experiment circumvent
and appropriate technical political and social modifications in their family food situations
and how they create freedom and innovation under constraint. Grounded in strong ethnographic
field research in several countries (Belgium France Italy Norway Romania South-Africa)
this book is also a contribution to the use of qualitative methods within the domestic space.
It will be a welcome source of information for researchers and students in the fields of
anthropology and sociology for industrial designers and for any reader interested in studying
social changes from the perspective of food practices.
