A life course perspective of family meals via the life grid method
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe and evaluate the life grid as a methodology for historical research; and to provide an example application investigating the dynamics of family meals over a lifetime by pairing life course theory with the life grid method of obtaining oral histories.
Design/methodology/approach
To explore how the meanings and processes of meals change, the authors conducted interviews with 15 respondents aged 80 years old and over, on the topic of family meals.
Findings
The paper discusses the merits of using the life grid method to analyze lifetime family consumption behavior. The findings of this example study provide insight as to how the roles, responsibilities, and loyalties of our participants had changed through births, deaths, marriages, wars, economic periods, illnesses, and the process of aging, leading to changes in dining.
Originality/value
The benefit of the life grid method described in this paper is its ability to minimize recall bias. In addition, the overt process of cross‐referencing events throughout the course of the interviews via the life grid method proved to be a helpful aid in identifying patterns and symmetries during the interpretation stage.
Keywords
Citation
Harrison, R.L., Veeck, A. and Gentry, J.W. (2011), "A life course perspective of family meals via the life grid method", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 214-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/17557501111132154
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited