Fraught cuisine: food scares and the modulation of anxieties

Abstract

This paper explores the circulation of contemporary anxieties related to food through an engagement with sociological and geographical work on affect. The paper draws on four case studies of ‘food scares’ in the UK and Sweden to consider the emergence, circulation and expression of food anxieties. It suggests that existing analyses of food anxiety neglect its affective dimensions, and that the circulation of concerns about food is an affective and embodied process as well as a cognitive one, taking place through encounters between heterogeneous bodies at a range of temporal and spatial scales. However, it argues that the movement of affect should not be considered as a linear ‘manipulation’ of mute subjects, but rather as a circulation of affective intensity that moves through heterogeneous milieux and is open to ‘modulation’. In contrast to manipulation, the modulation of affect is constituted through interactions and encounters, making its outcome unpredictable and uncertain.

Keywords:

• affect
• anxiety
• fear
• food
• food scares
• manipulation
• modulation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Peter Jackson for discussion and support in the writing of this paper. We are also grateful for the comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers. This research is part of workpackage four of the ‘Consumer Culture in an Age of Anxiety’ (CONANX) project, funded by the European Research Council (www.sheffield.ac.uk/conanx).

Notes

1. Fischler (1988) suggests that, as omnivores, human consumption is characterized by the tension that arises from a simultaneous desire for a novel and varied diet (neophilia) and a need for caution when confronted with new or unknown foodstuffs (neophobia).

2. Six focus groups were conducted with over 60s recruited through existing social networks in Sheffield and in Norfolk. They form part of research examining the use of date labelling within the broader context of everyday food practices and the regulation of food safety.

3. The group consisted of nine first-time mothers, aged 25–34 and living in central Gothenburg. They were recruited through the local maternity care centre. Interviews were conducted individually and in groups on several occasions during their babies' first year. It forms part of research exploring the intersection of institutional and consumer discourses related to the risks of fish consumption.

4. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, the Chisso Corporation released large quantities of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay, Japan. Thousands of local people subsequently developed ‘Minamata Disease’ – methyl mercury poisoning caused by consuming contaminated fish.