Volume 22 explores the complex relationships between gender and food in a variety of locations and time periods using a range of research methods. Gender inequality as it affects the struggle for access to land, the affordability of food, and its nutritional value is identified as a major social policy issue.

Alan Warde outlines general theories of change in the late twentieth century, and considers the parallels between their diagnoses of consumer behaviour and actual trends in food practices. He argues that dilemmas of modern practical life and certain imperatives of the culture of consumption make sense of food selection. He suggests that contemporary consumption is best viewed as a process of continual constrained selection among an uprecedented range of generally accessible items which are made available both commercially and informally. Consumption, Food and Taste will be essential reading for students and academics in the sociology of consumption and the sociology of food and eating, and will also be of interest to academics and students in sociology, cultural studies, home economics and consumer behaviour.

"In recent years, food waste has risen to the top of the political and public agenda, yet until now there has been no scholarly analysis applied to the topic as a complement and counter-balance to campaigning and activist approaches. Using ethnographic material to explore global issues, Food Waste unearths the processes that lie behind the volume of food currently wasted by households and consumers. The author demonstrates how waste arises as a consequence of households negotiating the complex and contradictory demands of everyday life, explores the reasons why surplus food ends up in the bin, and considers innovative solutions to the problem.Drawing inspiration from studies of consumption and material culture alongside social science perspectives on everyday life and the home, this lively yet scholarly book is ideal for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines, along with anyone interested in understanding the food that we waste"--

"Healthy Food: Perspectives, Availability and Consumption first explores the pathological form of healthy eating, orthorexia nervosa. Although orthorexia nervosa cannot be found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, important findings suggest that orthorexia nervosa should receive wider scientific and public attention. Additionally, the current literature regarding the effects of healthy foods and early feeding practices in childhood is explored in the context of the primordial prevention of non-communicable diseases and their risk factors. This compilation also examines carrot bagasse flour and banana peel flour for their potential to be employed as functional ingredients to improve the texture, color, and flavor of raw meat products, as chorizo, or cooked meat products, as sausages. Candelilla wax oleogel is investigated for its potential to replace pork back fat lard in cooked sausages, specifically focusing on its textural profile, moisture, color, and sensory acceptance. Results indicate that candelilla wax oleogel can be employed as a fat replacement, improving the health profile of certain meat products"--

"This study explores the subtle and complex significance of food and eating in contemporary women's fiction. Sarah Sceats reveals how preoccupations with food, its consumption and the body are central to the work of writers such as Doris Lessing, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood and others. Through close analysis of their fiction, Sceats examines the multiple metaphors associated with these themes, making powerful connections between food and love, motherhood, sexual desire, self-identity and social behaviour."--Jacket.

"In recent years, food waste has risen to the top of the political and public agenda, yet until now there has been no scholarly analysis applied to the topic as a complement and counter-balance to campaigning and activist approaches. Using ethnographic material to explore global issues, Food Waste unearths the processes that lie behind the volume of food currently wasted by households and consumers. The author demonstrates how waste arises as a consequence of households negotiating the complex and contradictory demands of everyday life, explores the reasons why surplus food ends up in the bin, and considers innovative solutions to the problem.Drawing inspiration from studies of consumption and material culture alongside social science perspectives on everyday life and the home, this lively yet scholarly book is ideal for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines, along with anyone interested in understanding the food that we waste."--

"Every day, millions of people around the world sit down to a meal that includes meat. This book explores several questions as it examines the use of animals as food: How did the domestication and production of livestock animals emerge and why? How did current modes of raising and slaughtering animals for human consumption develop, and what are their consequences? What can be done to mitigate and even reverse the impacts of animal production? With insight into the historical, cultural, political, legal, and economic processes that shape our use of animals as food, Fitzgerald provides a holistic picture and explicates the connections in the supply chain that are obscured in the current mode of food production. Bridging the distance in animal agriculture between production, processing, consumption, and their associated impacts, this analysis envisions ways of redressing the negative effects of the use of animals as food. It details how consumption levels and practices have changed as the relationship between production, processing, and consumption has shifted. Due to the wide-ranging questions addressed in this book, the author draws on many fields of inquiry, including sociology, (critical) animal studies, history, economics, law, political science, anthropology, criminology, environmental science, geography, philosophy, and animal science."--Publisher's website.

Contains the author's latest reflections on the uses and misuses of metatheory. According to Ritzer, sociology is a multi paradigm science. This book seeks to find a way out of the confusion by sketching out the lineaments of a new integrated sociological paradigm.