Re-examining the contested good: proceedings from a postgraduate workshop on good food

Graf, Katharina; Cohen, Anna; Simpson Miller, Brandi; Vaghi, Francesca

Abstract

Following the 2017 postgraduate research workshop hosted by the SOAS Food Studies Centre, in collaboration with University of Warwick Food GRP, this article brings together nine research briefs written by various participants. Inspired by the workshop's provocative theme, “What Is Good Food?”, each author explores how food categories are shaped and negotiated in different contexts and across scales. In this multi-authored article, the question of “good” food is first presented as contingent upon nutritional, economic, political, ritual, or moral conditions. Each author then reveals how globally defined notions of food's goodness are often resisted on the ground by producers and consumers, beyond the notions of ethics or “alternative” food movements that have often been the emphasis of previous literature dealing with the topic of good food. Taken together, this article scrutinizes the effects of various hierarchies of power and invites readers to reassess why and how good food continues to be a contested category.

Citation

Graf, K., Cohen, A., Simpson Miller, B., & Vaghi, F. (2019). Re-examining the contested good: proceedings from a postgraduate workshop on good food. Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, 19(1), 91-93. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2019.19.1.91

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2019
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jul 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 9, 2020
• Journal: Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies
• Print ISSN: 1529-3262
• Electronic ISSN: 1533-8622
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 91-93
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2019.19.1.91