A poignant look at empathetic encounters between staunch
ideological rivals, all centered around our common need for food.
While America's new reality appears to be a deeply divided body
politic, many are wondering how we can or should move forward from
here. Can political or social divisiveness be healed? Is empathy
among people with very little ideological common ground possible?
In A Decent Meal, Michael Carolan finds answers to these
fundamental questions in a series of unexpected places: around our
dinner tables, along the aisles of our supermarkets, and in the
fields growing our fruits and vegetables. What is more common,
after all, than the simple fact that we all need to eat? This book
is the result of Carolan's career-long efforts to create
simulations in which food could be used to build empathy, among
even the staunchest of rivals. Though most people assume that
presenting facts will sway the way the public behaves, time and
again this assumption is proven wrong as we all selectively accept
the facts that support our beliefs. Drawing on the data he has
collected, Carolan argues that we must, instead, find places and
practices where incivility—or worse, hate—is suspended and
leverage those opportunities into tools for building social
cohesion. Each chapter follows the individuals who participated in
a given experiment, ranging from strawberry-picking, attempting to
subsist on SNAP benefits, or attending a dinner of wild game. By
engaging with participants before, during, and after, Carolan is
able to document their remarkable shifts in attitude and opinion.
Though this book is framed around food, it is really about the
spaces opened up by our need for food, in our communities, in our
homes, and, ultimately, in our minds.
General
Imprint: |
Stanford University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
October 2021 |
First published: |
2021 |
Authors: |
Michael Carolan
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
240 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5036-1328-7 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
|
LSN: |
1-5036-1328-3 |
Barcode: |
9781503613287 |
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