Abstract
The present article analyses the formation of food routines with a focus on social practices. The analysis is based on the antinomies between inside/outside, pleasure/obligation and constancy/changes, and compares empirical results obtained from three countries: Brazil, the United Kingdom and Spain. The data come from three research projects, conducted in each country, from 2014 to 2016, which generated information from 183 interviews that was treated and coded. The considered food routines include regularity, sequence and recursive use of time. The antinomies regarding eating home/out-of-home and pleasure/obligation showed aspects related to escape from routine; social division of labour and influences that either out-of-home or home menus have on the diet; such aspects showed differences in some respects among these three countries. It was observed that the determinants of changes/constancy in eating routines somewhat converge among the three countries, with more “abrupt” changes in the presence of children, in terms of health and in the stage of children’s independence. On the other hand, more “gradual” changes were noted in connection with taste, food supply, income and work dynamics. Empirical findings point to a British cosmopolitanism, Spanish traditionalism, and a “mix” of cosmopolitanism and traditionalism in Brazil.
Keywords
food routines; sociology of eating; Social Practice Theory; sociology of food