SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Introduction Although our project originated within the discipline of economics, its motivation represented a considerable breach with its standard treatment of choice, whether for food or otherwise. The orthodoxy is associated with neoclassical economics. It is familiar to legions of students and researchers, varying only in degree of technical sophistication, rather than conceptual content which tends to be reproduced unquestioningly, even axiomatically. The foundations of consumer choice are as familiar to economists as they are alien to other social scientists. An overview of all our work, and a detailed account of, and justification for, our points of departure from the economic orthodoxies is to be found in Fine, Heasman and Wright (1996) and Fine and Heasman (1997). This chapter sets out how we attempted to develop an interdisciplinary approach to an understanding of what we eat and why.