AMS 55 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Consumer Sovereignty

• School: UC-Davis
• Department: American Studies
• Course: AMS 55
• Professor: Charlotte Biltekoff

Document Summary

Lecture 9 agency and structure in the modern food system. Today: a way of thinking about out place in the modern food system, freedom/constraint, agency/structure, agency: people make choices and shape the world they live in, structured: enduring social patterns shape human behavior. The myth of consumer sovereignty (food and society, ch. I(cid:374)di(cid:448)iduals pe(cid:396)fo(cid:396)(cid:373) (cid:396)ole of (cid:862)so(cid:448)e(cid:396)eig(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:374)su(cid:373)e(cid:396) (cid:863: the(cid:455) a(cid:396)e (cid:862)go(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:374)ed(cid:863) (cid:271)(cid:455) the sto(cid:396)e itself, stores designed to shape behavior, strategic traffic flows, speed humps, arrangement of products on shelves, corporate concentration, lotti(cid:374)g fees, (cid:862)(cid:272)atego(cid:396)(cid:455) (cid:373)a(cid:374)age(cid:373)e(cid:374)t(cid:863) Agency and structure/meaning and power: mintz, sweetness and power (1985, sugar became a staple in britain, even though it is not found in that part of the world. Weenie royale: outside structures: environing economic, social and political conditions and impacts. Inside meanings: what a product means to the people who produce it and use it. Neutralizing and domination (bentley: outside structures: environing economic, social and political conditions and impacts.