Children and food practices in residential care: Ambivalence in the 'institutional' home

Citation

Dorrer N, McIntosh I, Punch S & Emond R (2010) Children and food practices in residential care: Ambivalence in the 'institutional' home. Children's Geographies, 8 (3), pp. 247-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2010.494863

Abstract
Using an ethnographic approach, we provide an analysis of food practices in residential care to explore the atypical nature of children's homes as a threefold space that combines characteristics of 'home', 'institution', and 'workplace'. Residential staff invested considerable effort into recreating a ' family-like' home but the practices and ideals they drew on could be interpreted and experienced in different ways. We demonstrate the difficulty of delineating between 'homely', 'institutional', or work oriented practices. While care workers tried to juggle conflicting demands in child-centred ways, the spaces they created could at times be experienced as constraining by the children and as inhibiting a sense of belonging.

Keywords
residential child care; food practices; food; institution; children; childhood; ambivalence; ambiguity; home; residential care; Food Social aspects; Children; Group identity.

Journal
Children's Geographies: Volume 8, Issue 3

People

Professor Ruth Emond

Professor, Social Work

Professor Samantha Punch

Professor, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology