What Is Delormier Giddens Theory Of Structuration

It is a known fact that every human being communicates through language, but perhaps a little known fact that we communicate even through the food we eat. We communicate through food all the meanings that we assign and attribute to our culture, and consequently to our identity as well. Food is not only nourishment for our bodies, but a symbol of where we come from. In order to understand the basic function of food as a necessity not only for our survival, we must look to politics, power, identity, and culture.

Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.

Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the

Food is a highly unique commodity, for though it is essential to every single person on earth, there is no other commodity which is acquired and consumed in such diverse ways. It is a multifaceted social instrument, serving to connect people across cultural boundaries while simultaneously drawing lines through society, dividing people across race and class. Though we have discussed the connections between certain alternative food movements and the creation of a ‘white’ identity, I contend that the social mechanisms of food extend beyond the production of ‘whiteness’, and are intricately bound up in the creation and perpetuation of other racial and class identities in Western society. As the ways in which we consume and engage with food

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

The essay “Eat Food: Food Defined,” from Michael Pollan’s 2008 book In Defense of Food was written to address the American general public about the food industry. Pollan focuses on relatable topics as examples, such as family, common food items, and common belief that everyone wants to be healthy. The essay brings across Pollan’s point by establishing his credibility, explaining why this is important to us, and telling us how to react to the given facts. Pollan makes the readers inquire how we define food by drawing our attention to the importance of examining our food before eating it.

He presents the promotion of The Food Pyramid as the Golden Mean of nutrition within the 20th century, and not just in the Westernized Parts of the World, but worldwide, in places where for centuries a local food, ensured the nutritional balance and the survival.That has created a desired foods. Additionally, promotion of frozen foods and canned foods, was another type of strategy ensuring that people want certain things. A strong example Patel provides, that shows the level of absurdity the changing of the taste-bud conspiracy can lead to, is about a certain kind of sh, that's been fished near the coast of one of the countries in South America, processed and canned in Norway, and send back to that country to fill in grocery stores. This shipping of food from various parts of the world to people that “naturally” want it, and are entitled to have it, brings us to the next issue Patel looks

Over the last several decades, the diet of society has been continually changing. This has resulted in different formulas for nutrition and the proper portions of foods that must be consumed. To fully understand the various arguments requires looking at numerous viewpoints. This will be accomplished by focusing on Michael Pollan's Escape from the Western Diet in contrast with Mary Maxfield's Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating. These views will highlight how diet and nutrition is based upon individual opinions. This is the focus of the thesis.

In Slaughterhouse Blues, anthropologist Donald Stull and social geographer Michael Broadway explore the advent, history, and implications of modern food production. The industrialized system behind what we eat is one of the most controversial points of political interest in our society today. Progressions in productive, logistical, retail, and even biological technologies have made mass produced foods more available and more affordable than ever before. This being said, the vague mass production of ever-available cheap “food” carries with it several hidden

Sociology is the study of society and people. Food and food ways are often elements associated with particular societies and therefore, studying such a topic can offer valuable insight into the ways of that society and the people who live in it. Although eating is a vital part of survival, with whom, how and where we eat are not. Studying such ways can illustrate and represent the identity of a person or group. The nature of people and their beliefs can be indicated when analysing their food habits. Who individuals eat with is a particularly revealing factor into gaining an understanding of their identity, culture and society (Scholliers P 2001). For this reason commensality is a term frequently used in sociological research concerning

Whole food culture of building human and social capital is the epitome of what Kreitner & Kinicki decribe in their coauthor book Human Behavior the 10th edition. In Kreitner & Kinicki’s Human Behavior book they decribe human captial as the “productive potential of an individual’s knowledge and action” and social capital as the “productive potential resulting from strong relationships, good-will, trust, and cooperative effort” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013, p. 15).

In the documentary, Food Inc., we get an inside look at the secrets and horrors of the food industry. The director, Robert Kenner, argues that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from or what happens to it before they put it in their bodies. To him, this is a major issue and a great danger to society as a whole. One of the conclusions of this documentary is that we should not blindly trust the food companies, and we should ultimately be more concerned with what we are eating and feeding to our children. Through his investigations, he hopes to lift the veil from the hidden world of food.

According to this definition, food was consided a way of identifying people and distinguish them from the other creatures; therefore, a book called The Atkins Diet and Philosophy: Chewing the Fat with Kant and Nietzsche reports that “Besides responding to biological needs, food defines us a society and as individuals” (204) If food is seen as a tool to define the ‘ego’, eating habits may provide a great number of information about a person. However, since living in a fast changing world has made eating foregone and mechanical, people might tend to forget the real meaning of the act of eating itself. Indeed, if eating is an act of responsability; when consuming food, people make important choices and every choice they make reflects an aspect of their personality. As a matter of fact, in the last years there has been a stronger sensitation of the importance of ‘mindful eating,’ which is about eating with awareness. For instance, in 1986 a movement called “Slow Food” was born; in its manifesto, it was reported that “The aim of the organization is to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how food choices affect the rest of the world."

Next, Rachel Laudan argues the point that the processing of food is not a product of recent invention, every society

Food self-provisioning represents a very different kind of relationship between humans, food and the environment. Food self-provisioning and sharing the excess are generally social practices with low environmental impacts; these, in turn, promote social & community bonds which are compatible with sustainability (Jehlicka, 2013b). It requires little research effort, has no governmental intervention (unless the use of allotments is involved) and practices vary widely around the world. Food self-provisioning is generally environmentally and socially sustainable. It follows that if an individual changes their agency (whether through a change in values or beliefs or out of conscience) and that individual then changes their behaviour, they may set a precedent that others then follow. (Jehlicka, 2013b). Research shows that these practices promote local social, ecological and environmental resilience by strengthening networks of cooperation between families, friends, neighbours and co-workers (Jehlicka, 2013b). Alongside this is the reduction of waste as surplus is distributed amongst networks that encompass urban and rural family and friends, which also has the added benefit of reducing excess resource and energy consumption; this is both socially and environmentally sustainable. It gives practitioners control over what they produce as on a very general level food self-provisioning involves very modest amounts (if any) of fossil fuel-based and/or fertilisers and pesticides. This, along with that fact that little (if any) fossil fuel is used in the transportation of goods as these will mainly distributed locally (Jehlicka, 2013b). Added to this is that products also tend to result in much less packaging and waste; even the methods of preservation whether that be drying, salting, pickling, smoking, fermenting, canning, freezing and dehydrating will often have higher levels of