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Identities and Subjectivities pp 1–18Cite as

Morality and Relationality in Children’s Foodscapes

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Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 4))

Abstract

This chapter reviews key scholarship on childhood, food, and subjectivity. Popular debates about children and food produce a series of young subjects that are invested with collective hopes and fears, such as the idealized “organic child” (Cairns et al. J Consum Cult 13(2):96–117, 2013) or the pathologized fast food addict (Bugge Food Cult Soc 14:71–89, 2011). As these young subjects circulate throughout media and policy rhetoric, they provide the discursive context in which young people forge subjectivities through everyday food practices – whether in negotiating meal preferences with family members or trading snacks within the school dining room. The concept of the “foodscape” is used to situate children’s subjectivities within particular food spaces, relations, and practices. Drawing upon research from Europe and North America, this chapter explores three key sites within children and young people’s foodscapes: family food, school food, and fast food. Just as the restaurant “kids menu” specifies a designated array of items from which the young consumer can choose, children’s foodscapes serve up a range of available subject positions – subject positions that are relationally constituted and morally evaluated. In keeping with this section’s thematic focus on representation, this chapter explores the interplay between the construction of the young subject within dominant food discourse and the formation of young people’s subjectivities within everyday food practices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University-Camden, 405-7 Cooper St., Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    Kate Cairns

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  1. Kate Cairns
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Correspondence to Kate Cairns .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Nancy Worth

  2. Department of Geography, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Claire Dwyer

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Cairns, K. (2015). Morality and Relationality in Children’s Foodscapes. In: Worth, N., Dwyer, C., Skelton, T. (eds) Identities and Subjectivities. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 4. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-91-0_24-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-91-0_24-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-4585-91-0

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