This textbook equips students with the ability to analyze and think critically about contemporary food topics. A thorough introduction to the sociology of food and eating, the book also acts as a primer to the discipline of sociology more generally. Chapters start with a 'common sense' assumption about food which students frequently encounter in their own lives or in the mass media. Topics include family meals, ethnic cuisines, cooking skills and convenience foods, eating out, food waste, and 'overpackaging'. Anne Murcott shows how systematic academic research approaches can allow students to move beyond 'conventional wisdoms' to examine sociological perspectives on food and eating. Key sociological concerns such as class, gender, age, ethnicity, power and identity are also introduced, accompanied by a wide range of examples from around the globe. By the end, readers will be able to think more critically and to apply sociological approaches to questions about food and society. Introducing the Sociology of Food and Eating is an essential introductory textbook for students in sociology and food studies. It provides readers with a solid basis for success in their studies - and with a new understanding of their own attitudes to food and eating.

The British National Health Service celebrated its thirtieth birthday in 1978. A Royal Commission was set up to consider the role of the National Health Service, and it is the debates that surrounded this Royal Commission that form the basis for the twelve topics covered by this book. The economic difficulties that the country was facing when this book was published in 1979 highlighted the widely publicised malaise in the health service, and exposed the limitation of a set of ideals developed by the NHS in the years after the Second World War. These limitations, reflected in the economic recession of all industrial countries, presented a challenge and thus an opportunity to re-examine the nature and purpose of our health service. Although this work offered no easy solutions, it did present significant implications for public debate and public appraisal of the prospects of the National Health Service, and greatly mirrors the debates that have been stirring in more recent years. This title will be of interest to students of sociology.

Doctors and patients, inter-professional rivalries, how sociologists might tackle the study of vital topics in health - all these are enduring themes in sociology and medicine. These are also the long-running intellectual preoccupations of Philip M. Strong's twenty-year contribution to the field - one which he did much to shape. Posthumously gathered together for the first time in this volume, are twelve of his major essays, many of which are difficult to find or have been out of print for some years. Grouped by theme, this important reference allows the reader to trace the development of Strong's thought over his career as well as the more general development of medical sociology as a whole.

This is an indispensable companion for students studying sociology and related disciplines, such as politics and human geography, as well as courses which draw upon sociological writing, such as nursing, social psychology or health studies. It demystifies the process of constructing coherent and powerful arguments, starting from an essay's opening paragraphs, building evidence and sequencing key points in the middle, through to pulling together a punchy conclusion. It gives a clear and helpful overview of the most important grammatical rules in English, and provides advice on how to solve common problems experienced in writing, including getting rid of waffle, overcoming writer's block and cutting an essay down to its required length. Using examples from essays written by sociology students at leading universities, the book shows what they have done well, what could be done better and how to improve their work using the techniques reviewed. -- .

Appropriate as a supplemental text to courses in Sociology. Providing an overview grounded in research. Developments in Sociology focuses on the major areas of theoretical, methodological and substantive developments in sociology. Each author takes a field of study in which they are an acknowledged expert and highlights the way in which the subject has developed over the last fifty years.

'Why we eat what we eat?' is a key question for the 1990s, posed again and again in government departments, in sectors of the food industry, by professionals in health, in education, and in catering, to name a few. It is the same question adopted as the springboard for the UK Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Research Programme on 'The Nation's Diet' (1992-1998), a wide ranging, multi-disciplinary set of co-ordinated basic research projects across the social sciences, including economics, psychology, social anthropology and sociology, as well as education and media studies. Contributors include; Annie S. Anderson, Hannah Bradby, Robert G. Burgess, Michael Burton, Helen Bush, Pat Caplan, Mark Conner, G. Jill Davies, Richard Dorsett, Alan Dowey, John Eldridge, Ben Fine, Andrew Flynn, Leslie Gofton, Susan Gregory, Malcolm Hamilton, Michelle Harrison, Michael Heasman, Spencer Henson, Pauline Horne, Rhiannon James, Anne Keane, Debbie Kemmer, Mike Lean, Diana Leat, Zara Lipsey, C. Fergus Lowe, Sally Macintyre, Terry Marsden, David Marshall, Lydia Martens, David Miller, Marlene Morrison, Elizabeth Murphy, Georgina OIiver, Susan Parker, Christine Phipps, Tessa M. Pollard, Rachel Povey, Jacquie Reilly, Richard Shepard, David Smith, Paul Sparks, Andrew Steptoe, Ann Walker, Alan Warde, Jane Wardle, Anna Willetts, Janice Williams, Rory Williams, Judith Wright, Neil Wrigley, Trevor Young.

The British National Health Service celebrated its thirtieth birthday in 1978. A Royal Commission was set up to consider the role of the National Health Service, and it is the debates that surrounded this Royal Commission that form the basis for the twelve topics covered by this book. The economic difficulties that the country was facing when this book was published in 1979 highlighted the widely publicised malaise in the health service, and exposed the limitation of a set of ideals developed by the NHS in the years after the Second World War. These limitations, reflected in the economic recession of all industrial countries, presented a challenge and thus an opportunity to re-examine the nature and purpose of our health service. Although this work offered no easy solutions, it did present significant implications for public debate and public appraisal of the prospects of the National Health Service, and greatly mirrors the debates that have been stirring in more recent years. This title will be of interest to students of sociology.

Appropriate as a supplemental text to courses in Sociology. Providing an overview grounded in research. Developments in Sociology focuses on the major areas of theoretical, methodological and substantive developments in sociology. Each author takes a field of study in which they are an acknowledged expert and highlights the way in which the subject has developed over the last fifty years.

'Why we eat what we eat?' is a key question for the 1990s, posed again and again in government departments, in sectors of the food industry, by professionals in health, in education, and in catering, to name a few. It is the same question adopted as the springboard for the UK Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Research Programme on 'The Nation's Diet' (1992-1998), a wide ranging, multi-disciplinary set of co-ordinated basic research projects across the social sciences, including economics, psychology, social anthropology and sociology, as well as education and media studies. Contributors include; Annie S. Anderson, Hannah Bradby, Robert G. Burgess, Michael Burton, Helen Bush, Pat Caplan, Mark Conner, G. Jill Davies, Richard Dorsett, Alan Dowey, John Eldridge, Ben Fine, Andrew Flynn, Leslie Gofton, Susan Gregory, Malcolm Hamilton, Michelle Harrison, Michael Heasman, Spencer Henson, Pauline Horne, Rhiannon James, Anne Keane, Debbie Kemmer, Mike Lean, Diana Leat, Zara Lipsey, C. Fergus Lowe, Sally Macintyre, Terry Marsden, David Marshall, Lydia Martens, David Miller, Marlene Morrison, Elizabeth Murphy, Georgina OIiver, Susan Parker, Christine Phipps, Tessa M. Pollard, Rachel Povey, Jacquie Reilly, Richard Shepard, David Smith, Paul Sparks, Andrew Steptoe, Ann Walker, Alan Warde, Jane Wardle, Anna Willetts, Janice Williams, Rory Williams, Judith Wright, Neil Wrigley, Trevor Young.

This textbook equips students with the ability to analyze and think critically about contemporary food topics. A thorough introduction to the sociology of food and eating, the book also acts as a primer to the discipline of sociology more generally. Chapters start with a 'common sense' assumption about food which students frequently encounter in their own lives or in the mass media. Topics include family meals, ethnic cuisines, cooking skills and convenience foods, eating out, food waste, and 'overpackaging'. Anne Murcott shows how systematic academic research approaches can allow students to move beyond 'conventional wisdoms' to examine sociological perspectives on food and eating. Key sociological concerns such as class, gender, age, ethnicity, power and identity are also introduced, accompanied by a wide range of examples from around the globe. By the end, readers will be able to think more critically and to apply sociological approaches to questions about food and society. Introducing the Sociology of Food and Eating is an essential introductory textbook for students in sociology and food studies. It provides readers with a solid basis for success in their studies - and with a new understanding of their own attitudes to food and eating.

The last 20 years have seen a burgeoning of social scientific and historical research on food. The field has drawn in experts to investigate topics such as: the way globalisation affects the food supply; what cookery books can (and cannot) tell us; changing understandings of famine; the social meanings of meals - and many more. Now sufficiently extensive to require a critical overview, this is the first handbook of specially commissioned essays to provide a tour d'horizon of this broad range of topics and disciplines. The editors have enlisted eminent researchers across the social sciences to illustrate the debates, concepts and analytic approaches of this widely diverse and dynamic field. This volume will be essential reading, a ready-to-hand reference book surveying the state of the art for anyone involved in, and actively concerned about research on the social, political, economic, psychological, geographic and historical aspects of food. It will cater for all who need to be informed of research that has been done and that is being done.