Food, Families and Work

Brannen and OConnell have deftly provided a look at how families feed their children. The authors employ an impressive mixed-methods, longitudinal approach that brings refreshing perspective to a global debate often fraught with dramatic pronouncements regarding childhood obesity and the decline of the family meal. A systematic appraisal of dynamic influences including shifting parental employment, domestic foodwork roles, child development, and temporal considerations helps advance an evolving conversation about the family table. The authors skilfully weave rich, evocative case studies into this important contribution to the literature. -- David Livert, Pennsylvania State University, USA This book achieves so much, so skilfully; at its heart is a robust analysis of data relating to mothers, fathers and children, drawing on quantitative and qualitative research methods and considering the complex issues of food, families and work over time. It will be of interest to a variety of scholars. -- Wendy Wills, University of Hertfordshire, UK By situating childrens food in the context of the everyday lives of working families and by considering how children as social agents negotiate their food choices as they move through their lives at home, childcare, and school, OConnell and Brannens important contribution illuminates the complexities of food and family life and the dynamic, negotiated practice of childrens food in contemporary England. -- Roblyn Rawlins, The College of New Rochelle, USA

Rebecca O'Connell is a Senior Research Officer at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, IOE, UCLs Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK. She is co-convenor of the British Sociological Association Food Study Group. Julia Brannen is Professor of Sociology of the Family at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, IOE, UCLs Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK and Adjunct Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Is parental employment linked to childrens diets? The survey evidence 3. Who does the foodwork in working families? 4. When do working families eat together? Families, meals and meal times 5. How much power do children wield over what they eat? 6. How does childrens food play out across the different spaces of their lives? 7. Changing families, changing food: how do childrens diets change over time? 8. In conclusion Appendix References Index