This issue of Food, Culture & Society is excitingly diverse in its geographies. Articles represent research conducted in and about food phenomena in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Moose Cree Nation, Norway, Somalia, South Korea, Sweden, and the U.S. by authors from most of these areas. As always, the Editorial Board encourages writers from everywhere in the world who are studying the intersections between food, culture, and society to share their work through this journal: your readers are eagerly waiting!
Although the articles here take on a wide variety of topics, there are some common themes to notice. Migration is one, and it is a recurring, very generative theme in this journal. Migration tends to bring food to our attention and at the same time food can be an excellent lens into the dynamics of migration.
Six articles here take on the role of food in resistance and self-determination, a theme that people beyond food studies have begun to pay much more attention to. The recent publication of Nicole Taylor’s Watermelon and Red Birds in the U.S., for example, celebrates the food of Juneteenth, the celebration of the end of slavery that has just become a national holiday. By presenting articles from many parts of the world that engage with this theme, we hope we can further the conversation to make this work more visible and useful.
Four articles in this issue directly consider the invention of culinary rhetorics and traditions, exploring this process as one with diverse stakeholders with economic and political interests as well as cultural imaginaries. It can also be useful to think about the invention of traditions and of a “common sense” when we think about food as resistance because the process of mythologizing foods can be both empowering and disempowering.
Taken together, these themes reflect a world of populations in motion and engaged in constant struggle for cultural sovereignty and meaning.
Our book reviews offer material for exploration, contemplation, and action, an excellent mix of food studies possibilities. Liuchang Tan’s thoughtful review of Food for Thought: How to Innovate through Self-administered Uncertainty is especially interesting in its consideration of uncertainty – a principle with which we are all becoming much more familiar.