Food, drink and hospitality: Space, materiality, practice

Philosophical enquiry has enriched our understanding of hospitality – providing intellectual legitimacy to its study while broadening interest in the topic (Barnett, 2005; Derrida, 2001; Dikeç et al., 2009). However this has led to abstract re-conceptualisations of hospitality and a tendency to use notions of hospitality to view relations at national, regional and city scales rather than at the level of everyday micro-geographies involving transactions of food and drink. Moreover, this body of work has tended to treat philosophical debates surrounding hospitality and society separately from commercial practices. Meanwhile, academics concerned with commercial hospitality have largely ignored abstract philosophical debates and perspectives. Several studies have attempted to create links between abstract and more mundane, tangible conceptions of hospitality and between its social and commercial manifestations (Bell, 2007; Germann Molz and Gibson, 2007; Lashley et al., 2007; Lugosi, 2009; Lynch et al., 2011) and this event seeks to build on this emerging body of work. We invite colleagues to explore the complex interactions between food, drink and hospitality, and to make explicit connections between the abstract and philosophical dimensions of hospitality and its material, embodied and sensual practices. We are keen to develop cross-disciplinary dialogue and we encourage contributions from colleagues working in sociology, anthropology, geography, history, philosophy, cultural and media studies, gender studies, business and management, design, literary studies, health and nutrition and psychology, as well as related fields.