From Sweetness to McDonald’s - How Do We Manufacture (the Meaning of) Foods?

From Sweetness to McDonald’s

  Taking Marx’s theory of commodity production as point of departure, this article examines the ways in which the values and the use values of consumption are constructed in and of themselves and in relation to one another. It does so by positing what is termed the system of provision (sop) approach. This traces consumption through to its origins in production along relations, structures and processes peculiar to specific commodities. The material practices involved have their counterpart in the specific cultural systems attached to commodities. Such cultural systems are deemed to be Contextual, Construed, Chaotic, Constructed, Contradictory and Conflictual. The arguments are illustrated by reference to McDonald’s.