Social Stratification and Eating

Abstract

Patterns of eating, as an element of lifestyle and consumption, constitute a major research area in the social and health sciences. The study of eating patterns focus on what people eat, whether they eat alone or in company, where they eat, how often, and under what circumstances. For decades, research on eating within sociology had been somewhat neglected, but in recent years there has been an explosion of interest in this topic. In Poland, however, social scientific inquiry into practical, social, and cultural aspects of food has been minimal. Using data from a nation-wide survey carried out in 2013 and in-depth interviews with 60 respondents conducted in 2014, we attempted to answer two questions: (i) to what extent eating patterns reflect existing inequalities and stratification, and (ii) to what extent they have been affected by globalisation and Western lifestyle. This article discusses theoretical background of our research, its empirical basis, and summarises the basic results.