Understanding Social and Geographical Inequalities in Eating

Through an analysis of the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study, this thesis explores the intersections between food, class, space, and the life course. I show that different class groups consume different foods, and argue that this provides evidence for an ongoing homology between class and cultural consumption. The broad divide I uncover is between indulgent eating patterns on the part of working classes, and ascetic consumption patterns on the part of the middle classes. I show how, over the period from 1986 to 2000, a new post-Fordist pattern of consumption has developed (the ‘Ascetic plus’ eating pattern) amongst the cohort under investigation. I am also able to demonstrate that socialization in childhood, as well as cultural capital, appear to retain important roles in structuring eating patterns, but that the importance of socialization seems to vary depending on the trajectory of individuals’ life courses. Upwardly socially and geographically mobile people are the individuals who are most likely to adhere to the new post-Fordist eating pattern and because of this, I argue that these groups may the most able to break away from the structural moorings of class based consumption. I propose that this finding could be explained with reference to unequal distribution of reserves of reflexivity – these particular ‘mobile’ segments of the middle class may have greater access to individualized forms of identity.