Many of us got into food scholarship because we love food, but we also worry about food—the quality of food, the quantity of food, and the lives and struggles of people who bring food to the table. Put simply, food writers and food scholars are often food worriers. Certainly, there is no shortage of issues to be worried about: hunger and malnutrition, climate change, worker exploitation, an obesophobic culture and diet industry, massive animal suffering, and a shocking concentration of power, money, and resources in food chains that transcend national borders. When we attend food conferences and read food-related journals, we witness deep convictions about the need for more justice and sustainability in the food system. Indeed, some of the seminal texts in food scholarship, like Sidney Mintz’s classic work, Sweetness and Power, are focused on the ways that food is implicated in capitalist (neo)colonial systems that exploit workers...
Challenging Power, Fighting for Food: A Gastronomica Call for Submissions on Food and Activism
Joseé Johnston is professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. She is the co-author of Foodies with Shyon Baumann (Routledge, 2014), as well as Food and Femininity with Kate Cairns (Bloomsbury, 2015). She has published articles in venues such as Sociological Forum, Journal of Consumer Culture, Theory and Society, and British Journal of Sociology. Her major substantive interest is the sociological study of food, which is a lens for investigating questions relating to consumer culture, gender, sustainability, and inequality.
Koby Song-Nichols is a PhD Candidate in history and food studies at the University of Toronto. His current research examines how Chinese food and foodways have fed intercultural, intergenerational, and diasporic relations and communities in the multicultural cities of Toronto, Montreal, and Phoenix.
Michael Chrobok is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Toronto. His research interests include urban food accessibility, gentrification and food environment change, municipal food policy and governance, and the impacts of programs designed to incentivize supermarket development in underserved neighborhoods.
Josée Johnston, Koby Song-Nichols, Michael Chrobok; Challenging Power, Fighting for Food: A Gastronomica Call for Submissions on Food and Activism. Gastronomica 1 November 2021; 21 (4): 9–11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2021.21.4.9
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