Men, children and food

Principal Investigator:

Geraldine Shipton (ScHARR)

Co-applicants:

Jenny Owen (ScHARR); Caroline Dryden (ScHARR)

Researcher:

Alan Metcalfe

Aims and objectives:

This research will explore the effects on men and children of men´s involvement or non-involvement with family food practices – such as shopping, cooking and the organisation of meal-times. In doing this we aim to identify the food practices of both men and children; to develop an understanding of the extent to which their preferences and practices are mutually influential, affecting their self-identities and their conceptions of each another; and to examine how these practices and the concomitant relationships are constitutive of and relate to changing families.

The study will be based in three distinct geographical areas: inner city Sheffield; an ex-coal-mining area in South Yorkshire; and rural Derbyshire. The findings from this project will contribute to our knowledge of men´s current roles in `feeding the family´ and to our understanding of how fathers and children view `feeding the family´ in the wider context of family roles, relations and structures. This will ultimately inform our understanding of the relationship between food, gender and changing family lives.

Research questions:

• What do men do in relation to food?
• How do children understand and use food in their everyday lives, inside and outside the home?
• What is the relationship between men’s and children’s conceptions and practices of food?
• How do men and children use food as a means of negotiating with and relating to others and so constituting identities of self, families and others, particularly as men/ fathers and children, but also as male and female?
• Given that the research will examine different family forms in different socio-economic groups and geographical areas do these bear any relationship to the food practices of men and children.
• How do these food practices of men and children reflect and affect changes in family lives?

Research design:

The research will be carried out using a range of qualitative methodologies. The different methods used will include:

• participant and non-participant observation in schools;
• Arts based activities in relation to food practices;
• at least one focus group with men in each of the recruitment areas;
• semi-structured interviews with 20 families (whether under one roof or not, two parent, single parent or re-constituted families) in each area;
• ethnographic observation of up to three households in each area, exploring key times with food practices, e.g. shopping and meal-times;
• we will also draw on the qualitative and quantitative time-line aspects of the programme in order to access data regarding men’s food practices at different points in the twentieth century.