Bloomsbury Academic Food Waste: Home Consumption, Material Culture and Everyday Life (Materializing Culture)

In recent years, food waste has risen to the top of the political and public agenda, yet until now there has been no scholarly analysis applied to the topic as a complement and counter-balance to campaigning and activist approaches. Using ethnographic material to explore global issues, Food Waste unearths the processes that lie behind the volume of food currently wasted by households and consumers. The author demonstrates how waste arises as a consequence of households negotiating the complex and contradictory demands of everyday life, explores the reasons why surplus food ends up in the bin, and considers innovative solutions to the problem.Drawing inspiration from studies of consumption and material culture alongside social science perspectives on everyday life and the home, this lively yet scholarly book is ideal for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines, along with anyone interested in understanding the food that we waste. Review "Food Waste is both relevant and timely, offering new insights into 'the role of material culture in shaping' everyday practices of food consumption, and thereby, food waste production ... Evans challenges normative views of wastefulness ... demonstrating that households are undeniably aware of their production of (and discomfort with) food waste. Furthermore, he argues that food waste is more usefully conceptualised in relation to norms of caring that constitute feeding a family and loved ones than as an 'end of pipe' problem to be fixed by households, consumers and public waste management systems ... Food Waste is a well-written and well-researched book, grappling with big questions about the transformation of food into waste. In it Evans provides an accessible account of the complexity of household food acquisition and disposal practices and offers a perceptive categorical framework upon which further academic work on food waste might build." -Charlie Spring, Sociological Review"Evans' book provides a refreshingly non-judgmental exploration of the practices that lead consumers to waste food. ... A highly accessible, thought provoking and concise work, that offers a conceptual framework that will no doubt organize and position future studies of household food waste." -Kathryn Wheeler, The Open University, UK, Cultural Sociology About the Author David Evans is Lecturer in Sociology and Research Fellow of the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester, UK.