Food Information, Communication and Education

Food Information, Communication and Education analyses the role of different media in producing and transforming knowledge about food. ‘Eating knowledge’, or knowledge about food and food practice, is a central theme of cooking classes, the daily press, school textbooks, social media, popular magazines and other media. In addition, a wide variety of actors have taken on the responsibility of informing and educating the public about food, including food producers, advertising agencies, celebrity chefs, teachers, food bloggers and government institutions. Featuring a range of European case studies, this interdisciplinary collection advances our understanding of the processes of mediatization, circulation and reception of knowledge relating to food within specific social environments. Topics covered include: popularized knowledge about food carried over from past to present; the construction of trustworthy knowledge in today’s food risk society; critical assessment of nutrition education initiatives for children; and political and ideological implications of food information policy and practice.

This book investigates how knowledge about food is developed, disseminated and digested in diverse Western European contexts. Chapters critically examine beliefs about child and elderly nutrition, diabetes, gluten-sensitivity, vitamins and other dietary issues where medical experts, media brokers, scientists and educators promote concepts not only of good eating, but also of health and compliant citizenship. The book provides provocative insights into how food knowledge undergirds political policies, educational practices and nutrition advice., Scholars and activists have long emphasized the importance of “knowing where food comes from” while paying too little attention to the question of where knowledge about food comes from. Stepping into the gap is this ambitious collection of internationally diverse, interdisciplinary essays exploring what people know about eating, what they do with that knowledge and the broader politics of knowledge, authority and legitimacy that shape both.

Simona De Iulio is Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Lille, France.Susan Kovacs is Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the Enssib Library and Information Science school, Villeurbanne, France.