Josée Johnston

Professor Josée Johnston’s general research goal is to advance knowledge in the sociological study of food and consumer culture. While her research has taken on various empirical topics (ranging from food politics to celebrity chefs to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty), she is centrally concerned with understanding how cultural and political forces reproduce and legitimate the inequitable and unsustainable features of capitalist economies. Professor Johnston’s  research spans the sub-fields of culture, gender, and political sociology; the subject of food is a natural way to make connections across these various sub-fields.

Selected Publications

Bateman, Tyler, Shyon Baumann, and Josée Johnston. 2019. “Meat as Benign, Meat as Risk: Mapping News Discourse of an Ambiguous Issue.” Poetics 76(October):101356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2019.03.001

Oleschuk, Merin, Josée Johnston, and Shyon Baumann. 2019. “Maintaining Meat: Cultural Repertoires and the Meat Paradox in a Diverse Socio-Cultural Context.” Sociological Forum 34(2):337-360. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12500

Kennedy, Emily H., Shyon Baumann, and Josée Johnston. 2018. “Eating for Taste and Eating for Change: Ethical Consumption as a High-Status Practice.” Social Forces 98(1):381-402. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy113

Cairns, Kate, and Josée Johnston. 2018. “On (Not) Knowing Where Your Food Comes from: Meat, Mothering and Ethical Eating.” Agriculture and Human Values 35(3):569-580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-018-9849-5

Kennedy, Emily H., John R. Parkins, and Josée Johnston. 2018. “Food Activists, Consumer Strategies, and the Democratic Imagination: Insights from Eat-Local Movements.” Journal of Consumer Culture 18(1): 149-168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540516659125