Waste Matters: New Perspectives on Food and Society

Waste Matters is the first collection of sociologically informed approaches to be published on the globally important, yet largely under–researched, topic of food waste. In recent years, social scientists have begun to conceptualize waste as dynamic matter that shapes processes of cultural and economic organization. Bringing together theoretical and empirical contributions from a range of perspectives, these original papers extend such developments to the analysis of food. Individual studies explore the regulation and governance of food systems; the dynamics of social and domestic practice; the materiality of foodstuffs and associated technologies; the shifting entanglements and arrangements that shape how things are valued; and the categorization and circulation of food and waste. Taken together, these analyses not only highlight the various ways in which social science can inform an issue central to public and policy agendas, but also demonstrate the significance of food waste for a number of contemporary issues in sociology and social theory.  

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. A brief pre–history of food waste and the social sciences (David Evans, Hugh Campbell and Anne Murcott) 2. From risk to waste: global food waste regimes (Zsuzsa Gille) 3. ‘Waste? You mean by–products!’ From bio–waste management to agro–ecology in Italian winemaking and beyond (Anna Krzywoszynska) 4. The performativity of food packaging: market devices, waste crisis and recycling (Gay Hawkins) 5. Arbiters of waste: date labels, the consumer and knowing good, safe food (Richard Milne) 6. Food, waste and safety: negotiating conflicting social anxieties into the practices of domestic provisioning (Matt Watson and Angela Meah) 7. Practising thrift at dinnertime: mealtime leftovers, sacrifice and family membership (Benedetta Cappellini and Elizabeth Parsons) 8. Food waste bins: bridging infrastructures and practices (Alan Metcalfe, Mark Riley, Stewart Barr, Terry Tudor, Guy Robinson and Steve Guilbert) 9. Eating from the bin: Salmon heads, waste and the markets that make them (Benjamin Coles and Lucius Hallett IV) 10. Food waste in Australia: the freegan response (Ferne Edwards and Dave Mercer) 11. A ‘lasting transformation’ of capitalist surplus: from food stocks to feedstocks (Martin O’Brien) 12. The disposal of place: facing modernity in the kitchen–diner (Rolland Munro) Notes on contributors Index

David Evans  is Lecturer in Sociology and Sustainable Consumption Institute Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. Hugh Campbell is Professor of Sociology at the University of Otago, NZ. Anne Murcott isProfessorial Research Associate at the SOAS Food Studies Centre, UK.

‘This collection not only evinces rising concerns about food waste in our world today, but also contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural, political and economic dimensions of its occurrence. From the intimate space of the domestic kitchen to the realm of public policy—from the management of peelings, best–before dates and leftovers to the disposal of food industry by–products and food packaging—the contributors to this volume move beyond simple condemnations of ‘needless waste’ to shed new light on the many things that become ‘food waste’; on how various categories of people conceive of and interact with these things as they are produced, transformed and consumed; and on what ultimately becomes of food waste, whether conceptually or materially. In so doing, the contributors to this collection lay the foundation for a more comprehensive analysis of food waste, as well as for more robust critical engagement with the multitude of societal problems to which its production may give rise.’ — Harry G. West , Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre, SOAS, University of London ‘Food waste matters morally and politically, yet it has been conspicuously absent from academic concern. This excellent collection rectifies that omission. It provides a clear vindication that waste matters to studies of food and that sociology matters to thinking about food waste. Read it, and you will never think of food in quite the same way again.’ — Professor Nicky Gregson , University of Durham ′Waste Matters draws our attention to crucially important issues that have been ignored by scholars for far too long. This sparkling collection is sure to become a foundational work for anyone working on the social side of sustainability.It provides a vital new perspective on the importance of waste at the crucial intersection of food, culture and the environment.′ — Richard Wilk , Provost’s Professor of Anthropology and Food Studies, Indiana University