Taste, Environment and Technology: Food as a Lens

This is an Experiential Learning Course.

 

Food is not simply to fulfil the basic needs of human beings. Its production and consumption bear material and symbolic meanings in our everyday life. Through anthropological, sociological, political, and geographical lenses, this course examines three interrelated aspects of food: (1) taste (individual/collective patterns of choice and preference), (2) environment (natural surroundings, and socio-economic and political circumstances) and (3) technology (forms of production, processing, delivery and promotion). A special focus will be on Chinese societies.

 

Students will learn the ways in which taste, environment and technology are constitutive of and influence each other. Contemporary social issues derived from food production and consumption such as food habits, health and lifestyle, differentiation and inequalities, affluence and poverty, waste and pollution, food security and sustainability, and localization and globalization will be discussed.

 

To facilitate experiential learning, in addition to attending and participating in workshops and guest lectures, arrangements will be made to get students actively involved in community activities related to food issues organized by businesses, NGOs and social enterprises.  Through participation in activities and engagement with various groups of stakeholders in the community, students will work as a team to apply the knowledge they have learned in the lectures and adopt an interdisciplinary approach to conduct a project to address an important food (food-related) issue at the local/regional/global level.

 

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