This thesis is an exploratory study about adolescents' conceptions of food. It begins from a sociological or social anthropological perspective from which existing studies have illustrated that food and eating can be used in order to create, maintain or dispute social boundaries, symbolising both group membership and individual identity. The thesis draws on data generated through the use of participant observation in three schools and one youth club and through conducting ethnographic interviews with some of these adolescents. The main argument presented in this thesis is that adolescents conceptualise food in terms of 'ways of eating' which are defined on the basis of where the food comes from, 'where it is eaten, whom it is eaten with, who prepares the food. how it is eaten and the type of food eaten. When analysing these ways of eating, clear and consistent patterns emerge which show that adolescents employ different ways of eating in order to define, maintain or contest different identities available to them in the diverse social settings of which they are part. By analysing different adolescent ways of eating at school, home and out I illustrate that there are multiple identities that adolescents adopt or are ascribed in these settings. I suggest that adolescents are best understood as occupying a liminal status which is distinct from the statuses of both child and adult. In all three settings adolescent ways of eating can be understood as both creating and reflecting this distinction through the adoption of a particular 'public adolescent identity'. At other times though adolescent ways of eating can be used as a means of moving from one status to another, most notably as a means of adopting an adult rather than adolescent status. By conceptualising adolescence as a liminal period this necessarily incorporates analysing periods of movement and transition during which statuses, roles and obligations are negotiated and shifted. This thesis gives a preliminary insight into the role which adolescent ways of eating plays in this adoption or ascription of identities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:271794 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Roberts, Rachel |
| Publisher | London South Bank University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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