Food and Inequality

Abstract

The production, consumption, materiality, and meanings of food are critical topics for sociological research on inequality, although they have not always been recognized as such. This article describes how food is implicated in the production of inequalities across scales and sites. It begins by considering how the global food system is inextricably imbricated with structures of power that create and sustain patterns of inequality, especially in regard to land and labor. It then reviews the literature on food access and food insecurity, not only as determinants of health but as lived experiences shaped by local food environments, intersectional identities, and the social meanings of food. Lastly, it considers how the food justice and food sovereignty movements challenge the inequalities and injustices engendered by the global industrial food system. The conclusions highlight how sociological research on food and inequality is essential to understanding the contexts and consequences of contemporary policy initiatives. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 49 is July 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Schools and food charity in England

“…Moreover, this article contributes to international efforts to further understand the further entrenchment and diffusion to food aid across many 'advanced' industrial economies (Riches et al). It also highlights the need for scholars of poverty and educational inequality to pay greater attention to food insecurity and food aid in schools due to its developmental, social and normative significance (Shostak 2023). As food insecurity is disproportionally experienced by working class and racially minoritized pupils, it's also an under-explored way in which educationally inequalities can be reproduced.…”

“…This makes it all the more surprising that scholarship on educational and social inequalities has given so little attention to something of such material and social significance -food (Shostak 2023).…”

Schools and food charity in England

“…Moreover, the paper contributes to international efforts to further understand the continued entrenchment and diffusion of food aid across many ‘advanced’ industrial economies (Riches, 2018). It highlights the need for scholars of poverty and educational inequality to pay greater attention to food insecurity and food aid in schools due to its developmental, social and normative significance (Shostak, 2023). As food insecurity is disproportionately experienced by working‐class and racially minoritised pupils, it is also an under‐explored way in which educational inequalities can be reproduced.…”

“…Secondly, in emphasising the growing importance of non-state actors and charities in education, this does not represent a fundamental break in welfare provision-the United Kingdom has long had a 'mixed-economy of welfare' (Alcock, 2016). Finally, although educational and sociological research has historically neglected the study of food, and particularly its connection to inequalities (see Shostak, 2023), important work has been done in this area; this paper extends and helps to develop this nascent body of scholarship (Cardoso et al, 2019;Gooseman et al, 2020;Lalli, 2021Lalli, , 2023Lambie-Mumford & Sims, 2018).…”

“…Crucially, as child food insecurity is socially patterned, it is also likely to be a mechanism through which social class, ethnic and racial inequalities in education are reproduced (Bowen et al., 2021). This makes it all the more surprising that scholarship on educational and social inequalities has given so little attention to something of such material and social significance—food (Shostak, 2023). Heflin has recently shown that food insecurity not only shapes the attainment of young children but ‘adolescent exposure may be particularly detrimental to secondary school completion and higher education outcomes’ (Heflin et al., 2020: 464).…”