The Department of Sociology continued its Research Seminar Series with Pat Caplan (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Title: LEARNING TO THINK ABOUT FOOD: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEW

Chair: Martin Caraher, Centre for Food Policy, Sociology

Are there any common issues which we should be considering when we study ‘food’? My own career has involved research in Tanzania, India and the UK, has ranged from rural to urban settings and covered a period from the 1980s to the present.  It has encompassed cultural, social and historical issues and employed a variety of methods. So what can I bring from any of this to my present research on food poverty in the UK? Given the wide geographical and historical differences between previous and present research, are there any useful commonalities in concepts and themes?

Pat Caplan is Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths, where she helped found the anthropology department in the 1970s. She has worked regularly in Tanzania (Mafia Island on the east coast) and South India (Chennai) and has also carried out research in the UK on food and health. She has written books on gender, risk, ethics, food, and personal narratives. Her most recent book is a historical biography of a Tanzanian. She is currently engaged in a study of food poverty in the UK focusing on the London Borough of Barnet and the county of Pembrokeshire in west Wales.

For more information on The Department of Sociology Research Seminar Series, organised by Dr Jo Littler, please click on the link below:

https://www.city.ac.uk/arts-social-sciences/sociology#unit=research