Australian society and culture

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience" - James Beard

This network has been established to allow researchers and policy makers located in Australia who are interested in the social and cultural aspects of food and eating to connect with each other. We hope this network will foster interdisciplinary projects and other research synergies.

The network includes members from around Australia and also links to other related networks both within Australia and in other countries. Members of the network are from a wide range of disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences but also marketing, nutrition, medicine, public health and health policy. Our members are interested in such topics as health, body weight, gender and sexual identity, the family, agriculture and food provisioning, the cross-cultural dimensions of food and eating, the portrayal of food and cooking in the media and the history of food. The network particularly seeks to explore the ways in which food and eating practices can be examined critically and theorised using relevant socio-cultural theoretical perspectives.