The place of food in the lives of elderly people in post-war Britain
The place of food in the lives of elderly people in post-war Britain
Food has played a very important role in the lives of elderly people in post-war Britain. This thesis is concerned with elderly people's food practices in the 1960s and 1970s and draws on the literature on the sociology of food and the social science of old age, analysing data from a large national longitudinal study carried out the DHSS between 1967 and 1978. The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative data and focuses on the 153 elderly men and women who were the survivors of this survey.
Important issues have arisen including questions about whether it is appropriate to treat elderly people as a homogeneous group. In addition to themes relating to material circumstances and independence/dependency; food work and activity/passivity; food consumption and social integration/social isolation, two further overarching themes are explored; the shifting boundary between the public and private areas of life, and continuity and change. Food is identified as playing a central role in the contradictions between the public and private spheres, which are shown to assume greater importance in later life. Food practices are also shown to provide continuity in a time of life that is subject to immense change. This study concludes that old age is a time of resourcefulness in the face of the need for economic and social adaptability.
University of Southampton
1999
Kerr, Christine Lesley
(1999)
The place of food in the lives of elderly people in post-war Britain.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Food has played a very important role in the lives of elderly people in post-war Britain. This thesis is concerned with elderly people's food practices in the 1960s and 1970s and draws on the literature on the sociology of food and the social science of old age, analysing data from a large national longitudinal study carried out the DHSS between 1967 and 1978. The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative data and focuses on the 153 elderly men and women who were the survivors of this survey.
Important issues have arisen including questions about whether it is appropriate to treat elderly people as a homogeneous group. In addition to themes relating to material circumstances and independence/dependency; food work and activity/passivity; food consumption and social integration/social isolation, two further overarching themes are explored; the shifting boundary between the public and private areas of life, and continuity and change. Food is identified as playing a central role in the contradictions between the public and private spheres, which are shown to assume greater importance in later life. Food practices are also shown to provide continuity in a time of life that is subject to immense change. This study concludes that old age is a time of resourcefulness in the face of the need for economic and social adaptability.
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Published date: 1999
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Local EPrints ID: 463775
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463775
PURE UUID: 65b25a29-5c5c-489b-964d-30b0275bece4
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:57
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 20:57
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Author:
Christine Lesley Kerr
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