Abstract

GOMES, João. Don’t eat where you work: a case study of the meal ritual among work communities in the SMAS-Sintra. Etnográfica [online]. 2017, vol.21, n.2, pp.365-384. ISSN 0873-6561.

The article explores the relationship between work, social class and eating arrangements among work teams of a public company in Portugal (SMAS-Sintra). It is observed that workers in the operational teams refuse to have their meals in the company’s facilities (including meals they might bring in from home), showing a preference for eating out at a restaurant. The genesis and maintenance of this peculiar antagonism is analysed. The workers’ routine, far from representing a universal feature, must be apprehended within the specific configuration of the context it originates in. Using direct observation and semi-structured interviewing techniques, as well as a Marxist theoretical grounding allowing for the operationalization of the concept of class struggle, the phenomenon under scrutiny is examined in a conceptual framework that encompasses the circumstances that determine such a clear opposition. The antagonism established between the refectory and the restaurant is thus shown to be part of wider social cleavages, a synthesis of a given view of the social world.

Keywords : work; food; lunch box; restaurant; class struggle.

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