Dr David Watts

My research interests include: food insecurity and how it can be tackled; how economic circumstances and food consumption practices are linked; how consumers and producers construct, materially and conceptually, 'alternative' economic networks, both now and in the past. This work is informed by cultural political economy, and I am currently working on how this perspective can be applied to smaller and micro-scales through an engagement with the work of Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu.

I am also interested in the social construction of technology, professional knowledges and practices. This is manifested in work that examines: the cultural construction of hunting and 'peripheral' rural areas; the historical social definition of network industries (specifically railways); and the development of specialist forms of practice (e.g. meat inspectors, marketers), which draws on Michel Foucault's work on the development of specialist bodies of knowledge.

My web page contains more information on my research, PhD students, and other roles.