Social classes and food: Patterns of food consumption in Brazil today

Abstract

The social stratification of food consumption is the main empirical object of this paper. It aims to investigate the possible homology between the practices in the field of food consumption, on the one hand, and the relative positions in social space occupied by social agents, on the other hand. Therefore, such an investigation may be included in a set of studies influenced by Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of class, which the matizes the symbolic dimensional of class relations. Secondarily, this paper attempts to further our understanding of the mechanisms of social reproduction, especially regarding the role of lifestyles in the production and reproduction of inequalities and symbolic hierarchies.