Health, Food and Social Inequality

Following an extended career in public affairs, as a speechwriter and later as a newsroom journalist and editor, Carolyn Mahoney obtained her doctorate at the University of Sussex, UK. She is based in London and is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Brighton, UK.

• 1. Introduction: The Politics of Food Consumption and Health 2. Analytical Framework and Methodology: Critical Realism and Critical Discourse Analysis in Food and Health Research 3. Applying Social Theory to Food Production, Food Consumption and Social Class 4. Reflexivity, Habitas and Lifeworld: Applying the Theories of Giddens, Bourdieu and Habermas 5. The Evidence for a Diet-Health-Class Link 6. How the Agri-food Industry Shapes our Diets and Influences our Health 7. Critical Perspectives on Marketing and Marketing Research 8. Social Class in Food Retailing and Marketing and Reflections on Marketing Ethics 9. Conclusion

'The book opens with an overview of "the politics of food consumption and health" and then delves into three chapters rich—and dense—with theory...Though there is no direct comparison, the book is a deeper, headier dive from general overviews, such as the 2013 revised and expanded edition of Marion Nestle’s Food Politics (CH, Oct'03, 41-0962) or Michael Moss’s Salt, Sugar, Fat (CH, Aug'13, 50-6793)...Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers/faculty, and professionals/practitioners.'- J. M. Deutsch, Drexel University, CHOICE, October 2015"Mahoney’s research consists of synthesising a wide range of published studies on health and nutrition, marketing and food production...What is especially interesting is her argument that the expan-sion of sites where food can be purchased, from bookshops to fitness centres, encourages overeat-ing. Indeed, food is omnipresent and much of it is cheap. ".- Laura J. Miller Brandeis University, Sociology of Health & Illness Vol.