Cultural Analytical Perspectives on Food and Meals, Second Cycle, 7.5 credits

Learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• understand and discuss how food and meals can be studied from a cultural and sociological perspective with the framework of culinary arts and meal science,
• use theoretical and methodological scientific approaches to understand how food, experience design and meals relate to the surrounding society,
• identify and collect data for studying the cultural, analytical, and sociological perspectives on culinary arts and meal science,
• demonstrate competences to argue for choices of method and data,

Content

The course provides tools to understand and explore cultural dimensions of food and meals. It offers students cultural, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on how we eat and what shape meals in different contexts. The course offers perspectives to work with meals from gourmet food to junkfood, from nature-based meal experience to urban settings. It will have three overarching themes 1) Elements of meal experiences 2) Sociological perspectives on food and meals 3) Methods to explore meal experiences.

Examinations and grades

Cultural Analytical Perspectives on Food and Meals, 7.5 credits (Code: M400)
Grades used are Fail (U), Pass (G) or Pass with Distinction (VG).

According to the Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 6, Section 18, a grade is to be awarded on the completion of a course, unless otherwise prescribed by the university. The university may determine which grading system is to be used. The grade must be determined by a teacher specifically nominated by the university (the examiner).

In accordance with university regulations on grading systems for first and second-cycle courses and study programmes (Vice-Chancellor’s decision ORU 2018/00929), one of the following grades is to be used: fail (U), pass (G) or pass with distinction (VG). For courses included in an international master’s programme (60 or 120 credits) or offered to the university’s incoming exchange students, the A to F grading scale is to be used. The vice-chancellor, or a person appointed by them, may decide on exceptions from this provision for a specific course, if there are special grounds for doing so.

The grades used on this course are Fail (U), Pass (G) or Pass with Distinction (VG).

Comments on grades

For a grade on the full course, participation in examination as well as G or VG in oral examination is required.

If the student has not achieved a G-grade in the oral examination, the examiner can decide on a written supplement. The written supplement must then be submitted within ten working days of the grade being announced.

Modes of assessment

Cultural Analytical Perspectives on Food and Meals (M400): Oral examination

For students with a documented disability, the university may approve applications for adapted or other modes of assessment.

For further information, see the university's local examination regulations.

Specific entry requirements

90 credits in a main area where a degree project of 15 credits is included. The applicant must also have qualifications corresponding to English 6 or English B.

For further information, see the university's admission regulations.

Other provisions

Students who have been admitted to and registered on a course have the right to receive tuition and/or supervision for the duration of the time period specified for the particular course to which they were accepted (see, the university's admission regulations (in Swedish)). After that, the right to receive tuition and/or supervision expires.

Reading list and other learning resources

Required reading

Cairns, K., Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. (2014).
Caring about food: Doing gender in the foodie kitchen. In Foodies (pp. 177-201).
Routledge.

Fele, G., & Giglioli, P. P. (2020).
Performing taste: The sommelier ceremony. In Space, Taste and Affect (pp. 44-58).
Routledge.

Halawa, M., & Parasecoli, F. (2019).
Eating and drinking in Global Brooklyn. Food, Culture & Society, 22(4), 387-406.

Hoff-Jørgensen, C., & Leer, J. (2022).
Rethinking Restaurant Queueing Design: The Example of Noma's Post-Covid-19 Burger Pop-up. Journal of Gastronomy and Tourism, 7(1), 51-67.

Ikäheimo, J. (2020).
Exclusive craft beer events: Liminoid spaces of performative craft consumption. Food, Culture & Society, 23(3), 296-314.

Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. (2007).
Democracy versus distinction: A study of omnivorousness in gourmet food writing. American Journal of Sociology, 113(1), 165-204.

Julier, A. P. (2013).
Meals:“Eating in” and “Eating out”. The handbook of food research, 338-351.

Jönsson, H., Michaud, M., & Neuman, N. (2021).
What is commensality? A critical discussion of an expanding research field. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(12), 6235.

Leer, J., & Kjær, K. M. (2015).
Strange Culinary Encounters: Stranger Fetishism in Jamie's Italian Escape and Gordon's Great Escape. Food, Culture & Society, 18(2), 309-327.

Leer, J. (2016).
The rise and fall of the New Nordic Cuisine. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 8(1), 33494.

Leer, J., & Juel-Jacobsen, L. G. (2022).
Food festival experiences from visitors’ perspectives: intellectual, sensory, and social dimensions. Food and Foodways, 30(4), 287-309.

Leer, J. (2021).
How to use digital media in food-related action research. In Research Methods in Digital Food Studies (pp. 164-176).
Routledge.

Leer, J (2024).
Pasta Grannies and Gourmet Chefs: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Food Heritage, Bloomsbury Handbook of Food Heritage (Accepted pre-publication).

Murcott, A. (2019).
Chap 2: “Food at home” Introducing the sociology of food and eating. Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 29-49.

Nygaard, M. E. (2019).
Swedish fermented herring as a marker of rural identity: the Alfta surströmmingsskiva. Food, Culture & Society, 22(4), 407-422.

Pink, S. (2015).
Doing sensory ethnography.
Sage.

Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (1998).
Welcome to the experience economy (Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 97-105).
Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Ray, K. (2016).
The ethnic restaurateur.
Bloomsbury Publishing, 1-29.

Vásquez, C., & Chik, A. (2015).
“I Am Not a Foodie…”: Culinary capital in online reviews of Michelin restaurants. Food and Foodways, 23(4), 231-250.

Additional Reading

Bertran, F. A., & Wilde, D. (2018).
Playing with food: reconfiguring the gastronomic experience through play. Experiencing Food, Designing Dialogues; Bonacho, R., de Sousa, AP, Viegas, C., Martins, JP, Pires, MJ, Estévão, SV, Eds, 3-6.

Julier, A. P. (2013).
Eating together: Food, friendship and inequality.
University of Illinois Press.

Gyimóthy, S. (2018).
The reinvention of terroir in Danish food place promotion. In Nordic Food Transitions (pp. 100-116).
Routledge.

Krogager, S. G. S., & Leer, J. (2021).
Doing digital food studies. Research methods in digital food studies, 1-11.

Koponen, S., & Mustonen, P. (2022).
Eating alone, or commensality redefined? Solo dining and the aestheticization of eating (out). Journal of Consumer Culture, 22(2), 359-377.

Lapina, L., & Leer, J. (2016).
Carnivorous heterotopias: Gender, nostalgia and hipsterness in the Copenhagen meat scene. Norma, 11(2), 89-109.

Parker, T. (2015).
Tasting French terroir: the history of an idea (Vol. 54).
Univ of California Pres

Zampollo, F. (2016).
Welcome to food design. International Journal of Food Design, 1(1), 3-9.