Guest Editors: Laurent Visier, Geneviève Zoïa (Université de Montpellier)

Argument

This issue is devoted to the relationship between food and care from the perspective of the humanities, social sciences (history, anthropology, sociology, political science), art, and literature. The notion of care is to be considered here in its broadest sense, ranging from "paying attention" to a strictly sanitary perspective, from the physiological to the social and political.

While nourishment and care are two human activities that have always been linked, the Anthropocene period invites us to reconsider their relationship today as in the past. The relational dimension can be built on recognizing our vulnerabilities and their interdependence with other human and non-human living beings: to think about these dependencies is no less than to think about the human, the social, the political, and the forms of solidarity and justice.

Originating from nature and the earth, food involves interpreting and dividing the relationship between humans and nature. However, defining the relationship with living is not without conflict: food production is always linked to the definition of value, risk, the distribution of goods, and justice.

Four areas of tension are proposed here. Proposals may focus on one of these areas or cross them.

1/ The production of standards: medical knowledge, cultural models of nutrition, and the agri-food industry

Nutrition has developed into a medical specialty that, in the name of human physiology, lays down rules for eating well. These are translated into evolving food models, always based on regional and national cultural habits that are in flux. However, the globalization of agricultural sectors and the establishment of the agri-food industry have led to a high production of food standards, ranging from food composition to eating.

From the creation of the restaurant to home meal delivery, from the rational food movement of the early 20th century to the National Nutrition and Health Plan (PNNS) and the nutri-score, the production of food standards must be understood in its broadest sense, including the actors, places, modes and content of food.

2/ The subjugation of nature and the well-being of populations

The Western world has long maintained a relationship of possession, mastery, and subjugation with nature. Human beings' relationships with their environment are defined by their interactions with each other. This is a model in which humans are placed at the center of a world over which they have sovereignty and control. From this position, the Western world defined the good of populations, such as how to feed them. However, if instead of considering nature as a metaphysical concept or a resource to be exploited, humans think of themselves as an integral part of a natural world, in continuity with their social environment, then we need to invent other forms of care and relational gestures that include minority actors, thought of as "natural", both human and non-human.

3/ Between health production and environmental protection

Human concerns for the health of the body, on the one hand, and of the earth, on the other, can be associated without necessarily converging. What, with whom, how… is eating good? Trade-offs between often contradictory injunctions reflect a society's values, as well as its power relations. We will be taking a particular interest in emblematic foods such as meat, production methods such as organic farming, and organizational modes such as central kitchens to reveal the tensions and contradictions of a diet considered "quality."

4/ Feeding in institutions: caring for bodies and caring for relationships

Institutions convey a negative image of food to the extent that hospitalized patients' meals, like those of students in school canteens, symbolize poor taste. How do institutions care for their residents? While the social sciences have shown the importance of the meal as an integrating act in social life, institutions seem to lose interest in the question of food, which is more often than not outsourced. We'll be looking at how specialized institutions link the care of bodies (hospitals) or minds (schools) to the activity of feeding.

 

Soin, Sens et Santé —An International Journal of the Health Humanities is the leading French journal of the Medical and Health Humanities. It publishes original scientific research papers in French and English, with a uni- or multidisciplinary approach. Articles are evaluated through an anonymous peer-review process.

Process and deadlines

Paper proposals (including a title and abstract of 300 words maximum, plus 5 keywords) should be sent in French or English by July 1, 2024 to: revue3s@gmail.com.

Authors will be notified of acceptance within one month. Articles are expected by October 31, 2024. Manuscripts of accepted proposals must:

• be original, not in the process of being submitted for another publication
• be written in French or English
• not exceed 50,000 characters (spaces, footnotes, and bibliography included).