About the book

In developing this book, we began with the fundamental assumption that food and food systems are lively, intersubjective, and complex. This means that they change in time, resisting universal definitions and explanations. It also means that, even as we study food, it changes us and our perceptions of it. And, finally, as dynamic and adaptive assemblages, food systems need to be understood through pluralistic means. While positivism, science, and causality are useful frameworks for some aspects of food studies, so are poetry, wonder, affect, and un-knowing.

The three Ms of our subtitle—matter, meaning, movement—are our way of underscoring food’s pluralist nature. It is evidently stuff that we eat, but it is equally stuff that we use to symbolize other parts of human existence—as well as stuff that we load with discourse and ideas. Moreover, as evidenced by the ways in which we transport edible things around the globe, process and transform them, and insert them into contexts from finance to fashion, food moves.

Throughout Food Studies, chapters featuring art, poetry, illustrations, and audiovisual works offer moments to think and feel food differently. Addressing a range of themes, from food porn to pollinator relations, these pieces may help readers build alternative connections within the text-based entries.