Foodways Redux

Offprint of Ethnologia Europaea. Journal of European Ethnology 43:2 (2013), edited by Marie Sandberg and Regina F. Bendix.


During the last decades television shows have turned chefs into celebrities, and food and cooking have become an integrated part of the lifestyle and entertainment industries. At the same time food has scare-potential; food-related health problems and global food security are more prominent than ever, showing that anxieties, fears and hostility are as intimately connected with food as the joyful meal.

These dynamics of late modern foodways lead to new or modified food products and services, as well as new habits and routines. New investigations of everyday food practices are thus in order: Why do people forage for berries in the forest or mobilize resources to find traditional cheese when cheaper varieties are easily available in the nearest supermarket? Why do consumers spend time in front of their computers chatting with the supplier of organic apples at the other end of the globe and how come that the seemingly trivial practice of eating cake in Norway has turned into an act of anxiety?

By bringing such questions to the table, the contributions in this book provide perspectives on the dynamics of contemporary food consumption and production and its effects and meanings in everyday life.

Håkan Jönsson is associate professor in the Department of Cultural Sciences, Division of European Ethnology, at Lund University in Sweden.