Decentering Subjectivity in Everyday Eating and Drinking

This important book offers a model to analyze the configurations of reality as manifested in everyday practices of eating and drinking in relation to the development of human subjectivity. The author uses concrete examples from daily life related to eating and drinking habits such as "eating tacos" or "taking a shot of mezcal", to offer an interface of interaction between body/mind and material entities connecting all scales of reality. Borrowing scientific insights from molecular biology and neuroscience, combined with a touch of decolonial spirit, the author examines specific 'processes' and/or 'objects' triggered by eating and drinking events, such as the production of heat as you eat a taco, or the interchange of knowledge while drinking mezcal. The book develops an approach to human subjectivity informed by material and aesthetic encounters beyond the analysis of language, representation, and social structures and aims to contribute to the contemporary landscape of efforts decentering our understanding of both human and non-human affairs. With its multidimensional exploration of our relationship with food, this is thought-provoking reading for scholars and students in critical psychology, philosophy, and the social sciences.

Ali Lara received his PhD in social psychology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and was previously postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York. He currently works as a lecturer in psychology at the University of East London. His research interests revolve around speculative philosophy-based theories such as affect and Object Oriented Ontology, social studies of the body and the senses, and decolonial theory.

Introduction. Digesting Reality Ch. 1: Tacos & Heat Ch. 2: Veganism & Politics Ch. 3: Chocolate & Desire Ch. 4: Wine & Time Ch. 5: Mezcal & Knowledge Conclusion: Towards a multi-layered theory of subjectivity