Volume 18 of Advances in Medical Sociology

Food Systems and Health

Brea L. Perry, Series Editor

Sara Shostak, Volume Editor

This is a call for proposals for Volume 18 of Advances in Medical Sociology, which will focus on the broad consequences of food systems for both individual and population health. Additional information about the aims and scope of the volume is provided below. Articles may be empirical contributions or critical commentaries, and may be between 5,000 and 10,000 words. Each volume of Advances in Medical Sociology takes a focused approach to one subject or area of research, similar to a journal special issue. All papers are rigorously peer-reviewed, and the series is abstracted and indexed by Scopus and SocINDEX. If interested in contributing, please submit a one-page proposal detailing the purpose, methodology/approach, findings, implications, and originality/value of the paper. Proposals are due no later than January 15, 2016. Please send your proposal to Sara Shostak, volume editor, at sshostak@brandeis.edu.

Volume 18 Aims and Scope:

Food and nutrition have been the foci of efforts to improve public health since the Sanitation Movement. However, in recent years, the ways in which food is produced, distributed, and consumed have emerged as prominent health and social issues. With rising concerns about the contribution of diet to population health, food systems have attracted the attention of state actors, leading to both innovative and controversial public health interventions, such as citywide soda bans, “veggie prescription” initiatives, farmers’ markets, and school garden programs. At the same time, social movement activism has emerged focused on issues related to food and health, including movements for food justice, food safety, farmworkers’ rights, and community control of land for agricultural production.  Meanwhile, many individuals and families struggle to obtain food that is affordable, accessible, and meaningfully connected to their cultures. Drawing on a broad social determinants of health perspective, this volume will highlight how food systems matter for health policy, politics, and the lived experiences and life chances of individuals and communities.

In addition to those mentioned above, topics may include, but are not limited to: building resilient food systems in the era of climate change; community gardens and subsistence farming in cities; interventions to improve access to healthy food, especially in disadvantaged communities; the emergence of alternative food networks, and their implications for local economies and public health; understanding the development and effects of foodways, in both rural and urban contexts; collective memory and the cultural meanings of food; gender, family structure, and consumption; individual and collective strategies for limiting exposure to chemical contaminants in food; next generation food policy to improve population health, and; understanding the health effects of social movement activism focused on the food system.

For more information about Advances in Medical Sociology or any of its award-winning volumes, please visit http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/books/series.htm?id=1057-6290.