Digitalization of Society and Socio-political Issues 1

19From the Digitalization of Society to the Production of a Biomedicalized Food Culture

This chapter presents some of the conceptual elements and ideas that inform my doctoral research. From a perspective rooted in Cultural Studies, I observe the development of what I theorize as “biomedicalized food culture”, made possible by, among other things, the digitalization of society. This research is part of the critical literature emerging from the field of critical studies on food (see, for example, Brady et al. 2012; Koç et al. 2012), which focuses on theorizing unequal relationships, exclusionary regimes or the normativities and stigmatizations that contribute to the production of contemporary knowledge on food as well as the links between food and bodies.

First, I will present some of the theoretical foundations underlying my critical thinking, largely inspired by the work of Clarke et al. (2010) on the biomedicalization of society. I will then define what is meant by “biomedicalized food culture”, by referring to some examples to illustrate how it is deployed and materialized in a whole set of knowledge, practices, discourses, etc., by which “healthy” food and contemporary bodies are defined. In so doing, I will present how digitalization contributes to the development of this particular food culture. I will conclude by briefly presenting some of the issues related to how, through this biomedicalized food culture, “healthy” food and the links between food and bodies are redefined. ...