Abstract:
Through an ethnographic investigation of school lunchboxes, this thesis explores if
and how difference and Otherness is understood by children. In three urban New
Zealand primary schools I examine how children construct, affirm and/or
challenge social inequalities and issues of inclusion by looking at the contents,
concepts, narratives and activities related to the consumption and sharing of their
lunch food. Literature dedicated to social class (Bourdieu, 1984) and identity
(Rikoon, 1982; Stern, 1977) has documented the way in which food is creatively
used to reaffirm unity and belonging within minority groups (Camp, 1979;
Abrahams & Kalcik, 1978). In contrast to this approach, I review the role of food
as a ‘safe space’ (Mercon, 2008: 5) where diversity may be allowed to symbolically
exist for the purpose of affirming the unity of the nation state, while ultimately
muffling deeper social differences. The thesis thus questions the assumption that
food, identity and social cohesion are conceptually linked.
My overall argument centres on the “humble” sandwich, which I claim is
constructed as the core, dominant component of the lunchbox, mutually
constituting nutritional, social class and ethnic tropes, practices and values. I
assess the discourses, behaviours and symbolism that historically situates the
sandwich as iconicaly or emblematically “Kiwi”, contending that via the creation
of a dychotomized system (i.e. healthy, good, skinny, well-behaved, energetic, Kiwi
versus junk-food, bad, fat, naughty, sick, Other) children are enculturated into the
logics of work and socialized to be compliant with structures of inequality. Thus,
while the sandwich appears equally accessible to all, the differences in its
production can result in practices of class based distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) and
ethnic exclusion (Hage, 2003). However, my analysis also reveals that children are
not mere subjects of structure, but that they reproduce, challenge, mediate, and
re-shape these discourses and behaviours.
