IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v31y2024i3p885-902.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Expanding the joys of cooking: How class shapes the emotional experience of family foodwork

Author

Listed:
  • Merin Oleschuk

Abstract

The emotional experience of foodwork is often considered along a continuum, where pleasure exists in opposition to labor, and where inequalities restrict pleasure. Analyzing qualitative interviews, recall conversations and cooking observations with 34 primary cooks in families, this article explores how diverse parents experience pleasure through family foodwork. Doing so reveals five conditions facilitating pleasure: time, choice, aesthetic freedom, connection, and appreciation. It then analyzes how access to these conditions is shaped by class inequalities, while being attentive to intersections with gender and race/ethnicity. This analysis reveals how socio‐economic inequalities fashion negative emotional relationships to foodwork by imposing disproportionate stressors on low‐income home cooks, but do not necessarily predict cooking pleasure. Through examining intersections between the sensory and material aspects of foodwork, this article furthers theoretical understanding into how foodwork reinforces gendered, racialized, and classed oppression, while simultaneously identifying how agency and empowerment operate through cooking pleasure for low‐income groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Merin Oleschuk, 2024. "Expanding the joys of cooking: How class shapes the emotional experience of family foodwork," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 885-902, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:3:p:885-902
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12599
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12599
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12599?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hilmers, A. & Hilmers, D.C. & Dave, J., 2012. "Neighborhood disparities in access to healthy foods and their effects on environmental justice," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(9), pages 1644-1654.
    2. Marjorie L. Devault, 1999. "Comfort and Struggle: Emotion Work in Family Life," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 561(1), pages 52-63, January.
    3. Daniel, Caitlin, 2016. "Economic constraints on taste formation and the true cost of healthy eating," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 34-41.
    4. Mancino, Lisa & Newman, Constance, 2007. "Who Has Time To Cook? How Family Resources Influence Food Preparation," Economic Research Report 55961, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benjamin Scharadin & Edward C. Jaenicke, 2020. "Time spent on childcare and the household Healthy Eating Index," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 357-386, June.
    2. Min, Shi & Wang, Xiaobing & Yu, Xiaohua, 2021. "Does dietary knowledge affect household food waste in the developing economy of China?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Sékou Samadoulougou & Laurence Letarte & Alexandre Lebel, 2022. "Association between Neighbourhood Deprivation Trajectories and Self-Perceived Health: Analysis of a Linked Survey and Health Administrative Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Richard Volpe & Edward C Jaenicke & Lauren Chenarides, 2018. "Store Formats, Market Structure, and Consumers’ Food Shopping Decisions," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(4), pages 672-694, December.
    5. Sanae Tashiro, 2009. "Differences in Food Preparation by Race and Ethnicity: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 161-180, December.
    6. Daniela Soleri & David Arthur Cleveland & Flavio Aragón Cuevas & Violeta Jimenez & May C. Wang, 2023. "Traditional Foods, Globalization, Migration, and Public and Planetary Health: The Case of Tejate , a Maize and Cacao Beverage in Oaxacalifornia," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, January.
    7. Coline Ferrant & Philippe Cardon & Pierre Chauvin, 2018. "Individual and Contextual Factors on Meal Patterns among Older Adults in Paris and the Inner Suburbs," Working Papers hal-03440872, HAL.
    8. Jaroslava Voráčová & Erik Sigmund & Dagmar Sigmundová & Michal Kalman, 2016. "Family Affluence and the Eating Habits of 11- to 15-Year-Old Czech Adolescents: HBSC 2002 and 2014," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, October.
    9. Chenarides, Lauren & Bonanno, Alessandro & Palmer, Anne & Clancy, Kate, 2014. "Perceived Barriers to Purchasing Healthy Foods vs. Access in Underserved Areas across the Northeast," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170606, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Leschewski, Andrea M. & Weatherspoon, Dave D., 2017. "SNAP Household Food Expenditures Using Non-SNAP Payment Methods," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259139, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Hunt Allcott & Rebecca Diamond & Jean-Pierre Dubé & Jessie Handbury & Ilya Rahkovsky & Molly Schnell, 2019. "Food Deserts and the Causes of Nutritional Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 1793-1844.
    12. Kristi Pullen Fedinick & Ilch Yiliqi & Yukyan Lam & David Lennett & Veena Singla & Miriam Rotkin-Ellman & Jennifer Sass, 2021. "A Cumulative Framework for Identifying Overburdened Populations under the Toxic Substances Control Act: Formaldehyde Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-13, June.
    13. Jennifer J. Quinlan, 2013. "Foodborne Illness Incidence Rates and Food Safety Risks for Populations of Low Socioeconomic Status and Minority Race/Ethnicity: A Review of the Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.
    14. Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2020. "The effect of working from home on major time allocations with a focus on food-related activities," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1165-1187, December.
    15. Mishra, Sabyasachee & Sharma, Ishant & Pani, Agnivesh, 2023. "Analyzing autonomous delivery acceptance in food deserts based on shopping travel patterns," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    16. Jayson L. Lusk & Brenna Ellison, 2017. "A note on modelling household food waste behaviour," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(16), pages 1199-1202, September.
    17. Shan Zhou & Douglas S. Noonan, 2019. "Justice Implications of Clean Energy Policies and Programs in the United States: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    18. Shigeru Matsumoto & Thunehiro Otsuki, 2022. "Who changed food consumption behavior after the COVID-19 pandemic? Empirical analysis of Japanese household spending panel data," Working Papers e173, Tokyo Center for Economic Research.
    19. Brenna Ellison & Jayson L Lusk, 2018. "Examining Household Food Waste Decisions: A Vignette Approach," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(4), pages 613-631, December.
    20. Emma Beacom & Sinéad Furey & Lynsey Hollywood & Paul Humphreys, 2021. "Conceptualising household food insecurity in Northern Ireland: risk factors, implications for society and the economy, and recommendations for business and policy response," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(5), pages 1-22, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:3:p:885-902. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.