Restaurants are scattered along seemingly every inch the modern American urban landscape. They serve a very unique role in society. Simultaneously, they function as both a consumer space where food is purchased and a social space where human interaction is the key ingredient. Because the social element of restaurants, they are a place where social patterns are both reflected and created. The scholarly study of eating establishments has proven this conjecture to be true. Academic research has focused on the how the upper class is looking to privatize public space and how restaurants have historically and currently are excluding certain class of people even at basic structural level. All of this research shares a common theme—social borders do exist in society, and restaurants are a common manifestation of them. Prior to studying the role that restaurants play in creating social borders, one must establish that social borders do exist in today’s society. The work of Margret Crawford shows that these social barricades are a very real phenomenon. Rich, upper class citizens are constantly looking for ways to separate themselves from the lower class. This form of oppression can be seen throughout history and at many points was obviously intentional like in the case of racial segregation. In modern society though, the increased legal rights of the lower class have meant that this exclusion has become either more discrete or non-existent. Crawford argues that it is simple less evident, noting “the dominant classes have met the advances of these new citizens with new strategies of segregation, privatization, and fortification” (9). Specifically, the upper class has been privatizing public space, creating environments meant to exclude low... ... middle of paper ... ...tablishments are acting as class dividers, will increase the understanding of modern class relations, as well as, society as a whole. Works Cited Crawford, Margaret. "Contesting the Public Realm: Struggles over Public Space in Los Angeles." Journal of Architectural Education 49.1 Sept. (1995): 4-9. JSTOR. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. Lobel, Cindy R. ""Out to Eat" The Emergence and Evolution of the Restaurant in Nineteenth- Century New York City." Winterthur Portfolio 44.2/3 (2010): 193-220. JSTOR. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. Neal, Zachary P. "Culinary Deserts, Gastronomic Oases: A Classification of US Cities." Urban Studies 43.1 Jan. (2006): 1-21. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. Shelton, Allen. "A Theater for Eating, Looking, and Thinking: The Restaurant as Symbolic Space." Sociological spectrum; the official journal of the Mid-South Sociological Association 10.4 (1990): 507-26. Print.
"On Food and History." 'On Food and History' N.p., 13 May 2008. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
He begins his book in Colorado Springs showing a common scenario of Domino’s pizza delivery boy driving to Cheyenne Mountain Colorado home of a top security military installation relating future archeologist will find used paper goods of the fast food restaurants in the compound (Schlosser, 2004). It is true that fast food is in just about every major city in the United States and often across the world. According to an article in 2011, Gazette columnist Andrew Wineke claims: “Colorado Springs may have been the setting for Eric S...
After a long day in school and studying, every student needs a night off to just relax and enjoy a meal at a restaurant. In this modern time, some aspects of a restaurant can be the deciding choice. Many choose their restaurant of choice based on either those they are with, their personal, cultural appetite, their routine eating habits or their mood. Some of these preferences are similar yet others are the deciding differences. Two common franchise restaurants that pose differences are Applebee’s and Olive Garden. These two restaurants present their differences in environmental and food options causing a choice between them.
16 Helen McCully and Eleanor Noderer, eds., The American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating and Drinking, II (n.p.: American Heritage Publishing, 1964), 537.
Schlosser and Wilson argue that expansion of fast food chains has fostered conformity within areas that were once unique. One such
Mintz, Sidney W. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. [secondary source]
In the book Fast Food Nation: The Darks Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser claims that fast food impacts more than our eating habits, it impacts “…our economy, our culture, and our values”(3) . At the heart of Schlosser’s argument is that the entrepreneurial spirit —defined by hard work, innovation, and taking extraordinary risks— has nothing to do with the rise of the fast food empire and all its subsidiaries. In reality, the success of a fast food restaurant is contingent upon obtaining taxpayer money, avoiding government restraints, and indoctrinating its target audience from as young as possible. The resulting affordable, good-tasting, nostalgic, and addictive foods make it difficult to be reasonable about food choices, specifically in a fast food industry chiefly built by greedy executives.
American pay more in fast food than one does on entrainment like movies, books, and music combined. In 1970, The United States spend around $6 billion on fast food and by the end of 2011 the amount was nearly doubled to $110 billion. Fast food is now found all over the places like hospitals, airports, and zoos. “What We Eat”, wrote by Eric Schlosser reflects on his research on the far-reaching effects of the American life. “What We Eat,” is a look into the rapid increase and popularity in fast food for the American people along with the physical and social consequence of the rapidly growth of the service economy.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.
For millions, fast food restaurants are the source of positive associations with birthday parties, play dates and accessible comfort food. For others, they represent a lifeline meal on a busy day, or the secret to quieting a cranky toddler on a long trip because hurrying residents of cities have no time to cook a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fast food presents even in the lives of people who are trying
The United States of America, a country where anyone can become anything he or she wants to be. It is even given the phrase “Land of opportunity.” This is one of the reasons people from different parts of the world choose to immigrate to the United States. Immigrants do not immigrate alone, but bring their cultures with them. One of the representatives of culture is food, and with the vast amount of immigrants, the vast amount of ethnic restaurants are introduced. Beneficial things happened with the rise of ethnic restaurants, they serve as a doorway to introduce different cultures and they improve the country’s economy. Some people disagree and believe that ethnic restaurants are a problem. That they lead to cultural separation because it
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. N. pag. Print.
In “Fast Food and Intergenerational Commensality in Japan: New Styles and Old Patterns,” John W. Traphagan and L. Keith Brown employs ethnographic observation to analyze Japanese reception to the prevalence of McDonald’s in Japan, taking into account the subjects’ and informants’ ethnic backgrounds and cultural contexts. Critics maintain that the invasion of McDonald’s poses as a threat to the traditional dining patterns in Japan; however, few of them attempt to examine the underlying reasons of Japanese diners’ attraction towards McDonald’s. The authors argue that, rather than bluntly intruding the Japanese culture, McDonald’s naturally gain popularity amongst the local customers because of its exemplification of the deep-rooted Japanese values of commensality.
The fast food industry is something that is familiar to everyone. Living in the United States, you can usually only go a few miles without seeing a multitude of fast food restaurants popping up. The bright neon lights flashing and enticing all to come and have a quick, easy and cheap meal. Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, points out, “Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music - combined.” Without the fast food industry our country would be significantly different, it has changed the nation environmentally, economically, and culturally and has done many beneficial things
Food is an important part of popular culture, and the beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. The proportion of money spent on food eaten away from home, as well as the number of restaurants, has been increasing since the second half of the twentieth century. People may dine at formal, sit-down restaurants, at fast-food eateries, at cafes, or they may purchase food from street vendors. There has been an “Americanization” of diets through the growth of fast-food restaurants.