Materiality and family consumption: the role of the television in changing mealtime rituals

Abstract

This interpretivist study contributes to our understanding of how materiality mediates everyday family life by exploring the role of material objects in changing family rituals. We show how the television acts as an agent of cultural change when intermixed with family mealtimes. Our findings present a conceptual framework to explain the ways in which family life is altering across four key areas, namely: (1) mealtime settings and practices; (2) type of food consumed; (3) family structure and membership; and (4) family values and identity. This analytical framework illustrates how technologies such as the television mediate family relationships and how technologies become progressively more embedded in everyday practices. Revealing a transfer of mealtime practices from the formal environment into the informal environment, and vice versa, our study shows how mealtime rituals are altered and changed in form when mediated by the television, but not ultimately abandoned.

Keywords:

• food consumption
• mealtime rituals
• family consumption
• materiality
• television
• consumption practices

Acknowledgements

Financial support for this research was provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK).  The authors also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.