TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring Foodscapes at a Danish Public School

T2 - How Emotional Spaces Influence Students' Eating Practices

AU - Tørslev, Mette Kirstine

AU - Nørredam, Marie

AU - Vitus, Kathrine

PY - 2017/12

Y1 - 2017/12

N2 - Promoting healthy eating among children has high priority in Nordic countries but remains complex. With the purpose of contributing knowledge to inform efforts to promote healthy eating environments in schools, this article explores how children feel and reflect about eating at school and seeks to nuance understandings of how food and eating are situated in school life. The article draws on ethnographic studies carried out at a Danish public sports school following two classes from fifth to seventh grades (age 11–14). By adopting a practice perspective and the analytical concepts of foodscapes and emotional spaces, the article analyses how emotions (affects and feelings), discourses, materialities, and social relations within the school interact. The findings show that many students find eating at school unpleasant. Students want to eat in an un-stressful place away from the gaze of others. They want to eat in “a safe space”, which is difficult to find at school. Students’ accounts reveal how eating at school, intersected by the transitional life-phase of youth, is affected by normativity, control and (self-)discipline, which shape and constrain their eating habits. The article points to the importance of addressing the emotional dimensions of eating in efforts to promote school health.

AB - Promoting healthy eating among children has high priority in Nordic countries but remains complex. With the purpose of contributing knowledge to inform efforts to promote healthy eating environments in schools, this article explores how children feel and reflect about eating at school and seeks to nuance understandings of how food and eating are situated in school life. The article draws on ethnographic studies carried out at a Danish public sports school following two classes from fifth to seventh grades (age 11–14). By adopting a practice perspective and the analytical concepts of foodscapes and emotional spaces, the article analyses how emotions (affects and feelings), discourses, materialities, and social relations within the school interact. The findings show that many students find eating at school unpleasant. Students want to eat in an un-stressful place away from the gaze of others. They want to eat in “a safe space”, which is difficult to find at school. Students’ accounts reveal how eating at school, intersected by the transitional life-phase of youth, is affected by normativity, control and (self-)discipline, which shape and constrain their eating habits. The article points to the importance of addressing the emotional dimensions of eating in efforts to promote school health.

KW - Institutional foodscape

KW - emotional spaces

KW - eating practices

KW - ethnography

KW - school lunch

KW - school eating environment

KW - children

KW - youth

KW - health

U2 - 10.1080/15528014.2017.1357946

DO - 10.1080/15528014.2017.1357946

M3 - Journal article

VL - 20

SP - 587

EP - 607

JO - Food, Culture & Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

JF - Food, Culture & Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

SN - 1552-8014

IS - 4

ER -