For those interested in exploring the connections between food and power relations, <i>Food, Power and Agency</i> offers an invigorating and rich account.
LSE Review of Books
How power and agency operate <i>in</i> and <i>through</i> food is the essence of this book, which questions ‘good’ and ‘bad’ regarding such varied issues as taste, eating habits, health, and cooks’ work. The book exposes the omnipresence of power relations in mundane and special occasions, and makes indispensable reading for interpreting past and present foodways
Peter Scholliers, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium
With startling clarity and impressive breadth, this concise but powerful collection of essays from around the world provides new insights into the subtle way that power and agency operate through the mundane realm of eating, food systems, and norms of dietary health. This is essential reading for anyone interested in food OR power – but its great contribution is to show how those interests must, inevitably, intersect.
Charlotte Biltekoff, UC Davis, USA
From the subjugation of workers in a chicken processing plant to the unstable potency of cuisine and identity, <i>Food, Power, and Agency</i> reminds us that food is far from a mundane subject. Framed by an illuminating introduction, the collection demonstrates in fresh detail that food is the ideal medium though which to understand the complexity of agency, the vicissitudes of power, and the significance of symbols.
Amy Bentley, New York University, USA