Food, Families and Work

Rebecca O'Connell is a Senior Research Officer at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK. She is co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Food Study Group. Julia Brannen is Professor of Sociology of the Family at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK and Adjunct Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway.

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction2. Is parental employment linked to children’s diets? The survey evidence3. Who does the foodwork in working families?4. When do working families eat together? Families, meals and meal times5. How much power do children wield over what they eat?6. How does children’s food play out across the different spaces of their lives?7. Changing families, changing food: how do children’s diets change over time?8. In conclusionAppendixReferencesIndex

Brannen and O’Connell have deftly provided a look at how families feed their children. The authors employ an impressive mixed-methods, longitudinal approach that brings refreshing perspective to a global debate often fraught with dramatic pronouncements regarding childhood obesity and the decline of the family meal. A systematic appraisal of dynamic influences including shifting parental employment, domestic foodwork roles, child development, and temporal considerations helps advance an evolving conversation about the family table. The authors skilfully weave rich, evocative case studies into this important contribution to the literature.