Abstract:

Although food choice and consumption are mainly attributable to biological and natural needs, eating is above all a social and cultural action. “Drinking and eating in all societies, provide occasions for social interaction and enactment of rituals, and these offer a rich subject matter for sociological study” (Giddens and Appelbaum, 2003, p 6). As Germov and Williams (2008) noted, food does not only keep humans alive by bringing the required nutrients, it also represents one of the pleasure of life, around which many social occasions are organised. Food is almost always shared. The sharing of food can be viewed as a ritual strongly charged with symbolism which creates and maintains the cultural identity and membership in social groups. “Many relationships between individuals are created and maintained by food; under some circumstances, food is associated with their destruction. So food is bound up in the fundamental social processes of integration and conflict” (McIntosh, 1996, p3). In the same vein of McIntosh (1996) and several other scholars (e.g. Murcott, 1983; Mennell, 1996; Mennell, Murcott and van Oterloo, 1992; Maurer and Sobal, 1995; Breadsworth and Keil, 2002; Poulain, 2002; Germov and William, 2008), we consider the sociologies of food as central in unravelling the complexity of food choice and preferences. The plural version “sociologies of food” is used instead of the singular version “sociology of food” to attest of a lack of coherence in this field. Sharing the same beliefs of some sociologists (e.g. McIntosh, 1996; Breadsworth and Keil, 2002;  Poulain, 2002a), we think that in spite of the increasing sociological studies addressed to food-related issues and their effective contribution to the discipline of sociology, the sociological domain of food has remained an emergent field which is not yet well-defined and formally organized.

Eating plays a central role in social life. It is thus interesting to study how food and eating practices affect and are affected by the society. Rather than providing a limited overview, this paper presents the most relevant contributions of sociology to food choice issues through two main themes: the sociological thinking and the sociological understanding. The sociological thinking about food choice, which is presented in the first section, describes the emergence and the evolution of sociological food studies and particularly focuses on the way scholars have thought sociologically about food choice issues by presenting the various sociological theories underlying food studies. This overview on sociological thinking helps us achieve the sociological understanding. The next sections thus focus on the understanding of food choice through topic areas that link social context to food choice. The social differentiation by age, gender, social class and family which largely shapes food preferences is analysed. As noted by Fischler (2002, p141), “food is particularly a sensitive subject” because the food perception is largely influenced by social representations which mainly lead to the process of “incorporation”, the paradox of “neophilia” and “neophobia” and the magical thinking. The last section highlights the social representations of food and their influence on food perception and preferences.