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Commensality (the act of eating together) is studied in a range of disciplines and often considered important for social communion, order, health and well-being, while simultaneously being understood as in decline (especially the family meal). However, such claims are also contested in various ways. In this paper, we discuss the expanding field of commensality research and critically reflect on the debates surrounding its social functions, including its role in public health. We illuminate the deep social and cultural significance of commensality, through time and space, and conclude that whether or not commensality is the preferred social form of eating for any given individual, it is difficult to escape its sociocultural desirability and idealization. As a cross-cultural phenomenon in both past, present, and future, we suggest that commensality deserves further research. This includes commensality as a research topic in itself and as an entry point to unveil different dimensions of social relations between people, as well as interactions between humans and material objects.

Within the multicultural and multiracial city of Toronto Ontario, the space of the church is a place for racialized and white Presbyterian women to negotiate convivial hospitality, dignity, and notions of the good life. I use the concept of convivial hospitality to show how conviviality aligns with Christian hospitality when it centres on people’s will for spiritual and physical wellbeing through their relationships and interactions with others. This article focuses on the affective labour involved in the preparation of church community dinners, which were developed and organized by older, racialized Presbyterian women. Meal-time preparations are moments when convivial hospitality emerges among racialized women who pass the time by sharing their food, memories, and life stories, thus affirming a sense of dignity and belonging. Conviviality, however, takes an inhospitable turn when racialized women are subjected to undignified sociality. In exploring times when white Presbyterian women assisted with the community meals, the manner of their help coopted and disenfranchised racialized women from their service to the church and to God. What emerges is convivial inhospitality as racialized churchgoers are subjected to hierarchal interactions, making them feel like outsiders within their own church; yet, in caring for the wellbeing of white congregants to maintain social harmony and congregational unity, they tolerate the status quo which they see as Christian convivial hospitality.

Research on healthy aging commonly concerns problems related to loneliness and food intake. These are not independent aspects of health since eating, beyond its biological necessity, is a central part of social life. This scoping review aimed to map scientific articles on eating alone or together among community-living older people, and to identify relevant research gaps. Four databases were searched, 989 articles were identified and 98 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In the first theme, eating alone or together are treated as central topics of interest, isolated from adjoining, broader concepts such as social participation. In the second, eating alone or together are one aspect of the findings, e.g., one of several risk factors for malnutrition. Findings confirm the significance of commensality in older peoples’ life. We recommend future research designs allowing identification of causal relationships, using refined ways of measuring meals alone or together, and qualitative methods adding complexity.

Current policy attention to the ‘public plate’ includes a focus on food in hospitals. Recommendations for much-needed improvements include the provision of opportunities for patients to engage in ‘social dining’, which has been shown to have a range of benefits for health and well-being. However, there has been no synthesis of the literature on the topic to date. This scoping review sets out to identify and examine different types of evidence on social dining in the hospital context, factors shaping its implementation and impact, and knowledge gaps. Following comprehensive searches of two databases and a thorough screening process, 38 papers were included in the review. The outcomes and impacts of social dining were measured in a variety of ways across the studies. Social dining in hospitals can impact dietary intake and nutritional outcomes and have implications for patient well-being. These effects are moderated by a range of factors, including the age and needs of the patient group, eating environment, and presence of staff and visitors. Future research needs to focus on children and their families, an under-researched patient group that may be especially likely to benefit from the opportunity to eat with others in the hospital.

En este artículo se rastrean los procesos de especialización, división y segregación de los espacios del comer-beber-en-compañía en Madrid de 1759 a 1875. Se realiza un análisis de tres variables clave para esta evolución: los elementos espacial-materiales, los elementos legales y los elementos pragmáticos. Se pretende con ello profundizar en una perspectiva tanto histórica como sociológica que tenga en cuenta las materialidades de lo social, así como los sentidos atribuidos a las mismas. The aim of this paper is to track the processes of specialization, division, and segregation of spaces of commensality in the city of Madrid from 1759 to 1875. A triad of variables is posed to analyse this evolution: the spatial-material dimension, the legal dimension, and the pragmatic dimension. It is expected a historical as well as a sociological detailing which keeps in mind the material natures of the social and the plural senses given to them.

Two aspects that characterize the Mediterranean diet (MD) are “what” and “how” we eat. Conviviality relates to “how” we eat and to the pleasure of sharing meals with significant people. The most studied concept is “family meals”, which includes conviviality, which involves “enjoying” family meals. Given the lack of research on convivial family meals in Mediterranean countries, the purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze the family meal representations and practices of families with 12- to 16-year-old adolescents to assess whether they responded to a pattern of conviviality, and to examine their association with MD adherence. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted and food frequency and family meal questionnaires were administered. A food pattern analysis was carried out and digital photos of meals were analyzed to examine eating habits and meal composition, respectively. The findings showed that parents believed family meals are a space for socialization and communication. Items relating to the conviviality of family meals identified in the study were meal frequency, meals at the table, lack of digital distractions, pleasant conversations, and time spent on family meals. Attention should be paid to conviviality in Mediterranean families when designing multi-approach strategies to promote healthy eating among adolescents.

A growing number of studies indicate that university students and especially international students are prone to experiencing food insecurity (FI). Still, few studies have investigated forms of FI among international students in Europe. Thus, this qualitative study aims to explore experiences regarding FI among international university students in Oslo. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted between May and June 2022 and analyzed using a thematic approach. The sustainable livelihood approach (SLA) was used as a framework for analyzing and interpreting the data. The students experienced food prices as being high and found food variety at the grocery stores to be low, resulting in struggles to fulfil their food preferences and keep a varied diet. Particularly, social aspects of eating were affected due to high dining prices or inadequate cooking facilities in student homes. However, no student openly reported skipping meals and many mentioned attention for healthy eating. Considering our results, it seems of importance to give more attention to cultural and social aspects related to FI when assessing FI among international students. As the number of international students is increasing, knowing more about this phenomenon can support the promotion of initiatives addressing FI in this population.

The concept of the Mediterranean Diet has substantially evolved in the last decade and a half. From a model focused uniquely on nutrition and public health, in recent years, and after its registration as Intangible Heritage of the Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), its conception incorporated important elements related to society, culture, and sustainability. In this regard, the use of concepts such as commensality (or conviviality around food, or eating together), linked to a more cultural vision of food, began to be one object of attention. The aim of this article is to reflect on the role of these “new” elements regarding the actual definitions of the Mediterranean diet and, particularly, its relationship with other significant discourses inside this concept, as the preponderant of health, or the emergence of sustainability.

Family meals are a familiar concept and are practised in many Western households. While academics have been researching family meals for decades, there is much about the family meal we still do not understand. Meanwhile, the promotion of an ‘ideal’ of family meals across media, health and social discourse ensues. An extensive pool of research has indicated cross-sectional associations between the frequency of family meals and optimal health outcomes. However, evidence surrounding what specifically it is about the family meal that could offer health benefits is limited. Furthermore, family meals carry a level of moral value, evoking pressure for parents to ‘achieve’ a family meal ideal, unattainable for many. Family meals research has traditionally focussed on mothers’ perceptions and roles in family mealtimes. While literature is starting to emerge on the often-overlooked cognitive contribution required to plan and execute family meals, little structural supports exist to streamline these efforts or make them more achievable for contemporary families. The published literature is only starting to include cultural and demographic diversity, making it difficult to understand and promote realistic and feasible family meals across populations. The popular depiction of family meals needs to evolve alongside changes in social norms. Our call to action to address these issues is to draw on existing family meal practices, continue to diversify our investigations, and broaden our definitions and understandings of what a family meal is or could be, and how it should be measured.

Sociology’s focus on sociality and co-presence has long oriented studies of commensality—the social dimension of eating together. This literature commonly prioritizes face-to-face interactions and takes physical proximity for granted. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 largely halted in-person gatherings and altered everyday foodways. Consequently, many people turned to digital commensality, cooking and eating together through video-call technology such as Zoom and FaceTime. We explore the implications of these new foodways and ask: has digital commensality helped cultivate co-presence amidst pandemic-induced physical separation? If so, how? To address these questions, we analyze two forms of qualitative data collected by the first author: interviews with individuals who cooked and ate together at a distance since March 2020 and digital ethnography during different groups’ online food events (e.g., happy hours, dinners, holiday gatherings, and birthday celebrations). Digital commensality helps foster a sense of co-presence and social connectedness at a distance. Specifically, participants use three temporally oriented strategies to create or maintain co-presence: they draw on pre-pandemic pasts and reinvent culinary traditions to meet new circumstances; they creatively adapt novel digital foodways through online dining; and they actively imagine post-pandemic futures where physically proximate commensality is again possible.