The Social Significance of Dining out: A Study of Continuity and Change - Hardcover

Warde, Alan; Paddock, Jessica; Whillans, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1526134756 ISBN 13: 9781526134752

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2020

Synopsis

Dining out used to be considered exceptional. However, the Food Standards Authority reported that in 2014, one meal in six was eaten away from home in Britain. Previously considered a necessary substitute for an inability to obtain a meal in a family home, dining out has become a popular recreational activity for a majority of the population, offering pleasure as well as refreshment. 

Based on a major mixed-methods research project on dining out in England, this book offers a unique comparison of the social differences between London, Bristol and Preston from 1995 to 2015, charting the dynamic relationship between eating in and eating out. Addressing topics such as the changing domestic divisions of labour around food preparation, the variety of culinary experience for different sections of the population, and class differences in taste and the pleasures and satisfactions associated with dining out, the authors explore how the practice has evolved across the three cities.

About this title

About the Author

Alan Warde is Professor of Sociology and Co-director of the Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition at the University of Manchester

From the Back Cover

'This is a remarkable book that will be of wide interest to sociologists of consumption and scholars of food studies more generally.'
British Journal of Sociology

'This is an exquisitely detailed and deliberate sociology of the ordinary restaurant meal and dinner with friends ... It is the perfect book to teach with, and I will do so.'
Contemporary Sociology

Dining out used to be considered exceptional. However, the Food Standards Authority reported that in 2014, one meal in six was eaten away from home in Britain. Previously considered a necessary substitute for an inability to obtain a meal in a family home, dining out has become a popular recreational activity for a majority of the population, offering pleasure as well as refreshment.

Based on a major mixed-methods research project on dining out in England, this book offers a unique comparison of the social differences between London, Bristol and Preston from 1995 to 2015, charting the dynamic relationship between eating in and eating out. Addressing topics such as the changing domestic divisions of labour around food preparation, the variety of culinary experience for different sections of the population, and class differences in taste and the pleasures and satisfactions associated with dining out, the authors explore how the practice has evolved across the three cities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526134756
• ISBN 13: 9781526134752
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296