In a joint project, we are dealing with the relationship between ‘food’ and ‘class’ in and outside the field of family care relations. We used the context of the workshop to describe our research approach and project in general and to discuss with the participants related issues that concern us in our work. The text at hand focuses on the connection between ‘advertising’ and ‘class’ using the example of German food commercials, especially from the 1990s and 2000s, and deals with the thesis that although advertising spots of these decades do not depict lifeworlds in materially precarious conditions for reasons of sales strategy, they cannot completely avoid references to the precarious living conditions of their target group. Thereby, they also intervene in parent/child relationships in an intentional and potentially harmful way. We take the analysis of these commercials as an opportunity to reflect on empowering possibilities of intervention in the context of ‘food’, ‘class’ and ‘care’ work.

CV

Philipp Hagemann (*1991 in Ahlen/FRG) and Alexander Wagner (*1987 in Hoyerswerda/GDR) were socialized in so-called “bescheidenen Verhältnissen”, come from cultural studies disciplines, work together on topics of postcolonial theory, and want to steer their textual thinking into other fields of action and thus work through techniques and methods of the humanities in a critical-productive way.

Philipp works as a research assistant in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Paderborn. He studied English and Philosophy and was a teacher for both subjects at a comprehensive school. In a qualification work, he deals with the implications of racism-critical theory and educational work for teaching philosophy in schools.

Alex is a research assistant in the field of Modern German Literary History at the University of Wuppertal. He did his doctorate on continuities of German colonialism at the time of National Socialism. His fields of activity include the relationship between literature and ‘knowledge’, gender and media history, postcolonial theory, popular culture, the border areas of art and science, and the history of the GDR and East Germany after the ‘Wende’.

Currently, they are engaged with setting up a Research Lab for Interventions Against Classism (Forschungslabor für Interventionen gegen Klassismus).

Citation

Philipp Hagemann, Alexander Wagner, “Lunchables. About the Connection of Food and Class”, insightOut. Journal on Gender and Sexuality in STEM Collections and Cultures, 1(2023), 69–78, DOI: 10.605