Sharing Meals: Social aspects of eating and cooking together

• Program
• Summary
• Contact

Program 

Program Symposium Cooking & Eating together 

Summary
 

Eating involves many other dimensions than just ingesting food. It is especially a social act, as it involves the social position and relationships of the individual in all of the included practices: supplying, cooking, dressing, ordering, ingesting, clearing, washing-up, managing left-overs, etc. Some moments in a day, the meals, are more specifically dedicated to eating with all these dimensions. Thus, all the choices regarding their organization have social implications. Especially, sharing these meals (including all the activities listed before) with other persons has important implications. Indeed, Eating Together is, for the human beings, a way of expressing special relationships – as it can be seen when the meal is used as a diplomatic tool. The term commensality, meaning literally “sharing the table”, can be defined as the fact to eat together. It is interesting to see that it is often used as a substitute for conviviality, which expresses the pleasure to be together and to discuss around a table. It is true that eating together is often perceived as a good way of creating good social relationships, or even more to improve the quality of the diet. Yet, eating together can sometimes also be a difficult time, especially when it was not the person’s choice. This symposium offers to explore these different dimensions associated with sharing meals.

References

• Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme. 1825. La physiologie du goût. Paris: Sautelet. Fischler, Claude. 1990. L’Homnivore. Paris: Odile Jacob.
• Grignon, Claude. 2001. « Commensality and Social Morphology: An Essay of Typology ». In Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages, par Peter Scholliers, 23‑33. Berg.
• Guérin, Laura. 2016. « « Faire manger » et « jouer le jeu de la convivialité » en établissement d’hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes (EHPAD). De l’intensification des contraintes de travail pendant le service des repas ». SociologieS, juin.
• Poulain, Jean-Pierre. 2002. Sociologies de l’alimentation : les mangeurs et l’espace social alimentaire. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.
• Sobal, Jeffery. 2000. « Sociability and Meals: Facilitation, Commensality, and Interaction ». In Dimensions Of The Meal: Science, Culture, Business, Art, par Herbert L. Meiselman, 119‑33. Springer US.
• Warde, Alan. 2016. The Practice of Eating. John Wiley & Sons.
• Weinstein, Miriam. 2006. The Surprising Power of Family Meals: How Eating Together Makes Us Smarter, Stronger, Healthier and Happier. Steerforth Press.

Contact

For any question, please contact symposium@institutpaulbocuse.com with the object “Sharing Meals Symposium”.