The Holy Gram: Strategy and Tactics in the Primary School Canteen

Abstract

In this ethnography of three Italian primary school canteens I use de Certeau’s concepts of strategy and tactics to examine how the biopolitical construction of a healthy meal is subjected to resistances by parents, teachers, children, and cooks. I first illustrate how the top–down model on nutrition stems from global and national organizations, is deciphered and transformed by local agencies, and eventually becomes a healthy meal, perfectly balanced in its nutrients. Later, I show how subjects involved in its reception challenge the top–down model and develop intentional tactics that withstand the scientific knowledge of the nutritionists that construct the menu: parents and teachers contest the experts’ authority, cooks cheat on grams, children eat more (or less) than they should. Taking a different approach from studies that highlight the undesirable and coercive outcomes of biopower, I argue that in these school canteens subjects are not trapped by biopedagogies but deploy their agencies by questioning, eluding, and even subverting the rationale of the school meal.

Cuisine, Health and Table Manners: Food Boundaries and Forms of Distinction among Primary School Children

“…This finding resonates with the evidence on the ways social class shapes and constrains parental eating and feeding choices, and more particularly mothers’ ‘foodwork’ (Cairns et al, 2013; Daniel, 2016; Wright et al, 2015). In a moment of increased attention on the school-food binomial (Morgan and Sonnino, 2008; Oncini, 2018a), this finding may suggest that meal policies should more decisively address food literacy gaps (Velardo, 2015) by thinking about how children’s social origins influence their knowledge of nutrition, as much as their reading and math competencies (Marks, 2005).…”

“…As children’s tastes are taken to school, recess and lunch provide an opportunity to study in vivo how children reconstruct boundaries with their peers through food. Despite a common depiction of school commensality as an experience of in-group production, school meals are often the catalysts of divisions, frictions and fractures (Oncini, 2018a; Wills et al, 2018). The infamous ‘Battle of Rawmarsh’ 1 (Pike and Leahy, 2012) or the evidence regarding the emergence of a black market in confectionery organised by teens in two English secondary schools (Fletcher et al, 2014) are just two examples of such fractures.…”

“…This study is part of a larger project of ethnographic research in several primary school canteens in Italy (see Oncini, 2018a, 2018b for full details). This contribution makes use of fieldnotes gathered during recess and lunch in two schools situated in Poversano and Goldazzo, two small towns in Trentino where I spent around eight months.…”

“…For many Italian families, especially from the middle class, aesthetic and sensorial evocations set the tempo of commensality, and children are expected to learn how to take pleasure from eating (Ochs et al, 1996). This attention is in turn mirrored in the organisation of the school meal, which is configured as an actual moment of food education, to transmit both a sense of taste and knowledge on local cuisines (Morgan and Sonnino, 2008; Oncini, 2018a).…”

The Socio‐Economic Boundaries Shaping Young People's Lunchtime Food Practices on a School Day

“…The use of multiple methods was based on the overall ethnographic approach and case study design and reflects similar studies (Fletcher et al, 2013;Oncini, 2017). The research team undertook periods of 2-3 weeks ethnographic observation in each school cafeteria/dining room and around local food outlets, to observe the ebb and flow (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995) during the mid-morning break and lunch period.…”