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let us eat (cup)cake

Hamburgers, macaroni, and meatloaf. Traditional working-class fare or signs of a populist revolution?

These lowbrow treats have joined foie gras and duck confit as the centerpieces of gourmet food writing. Although the ascendancy of the cupcake may look like a democratic swelling within the ranks of highbrow cuisine, a recent study by Josée Johnston and Shyon Baumann (American Journal of Sociology, July 2007) suggests gourmet food is still all about taste and distinction. Food critics have simply become more “omnivorous”—well-versed in many different cuisines—by showcasing the more obscure traits of everyday foods only a refined palette can discern.

According to the authors, what makes a roadside diner or homemade casserole gourmet is their authenticity and exoticism. Critics assess the authenticity of a dish by highlighting its geographic region, simplicity in preparation, or the chef “behind the scenes.” A local fish sauce produced in Phu Quoc, an island off the coast of Vietnam, is “nuanced, delicate, and unlike any other fish sauce” you may find in the grocery store. Simplicity shines through in another article describing the “unschooled” techniques of a “mama’s kitchen” in rural Louisiana. Exoticism, on the other hand, refers to how dishes represent something unusual or exciting, such as Catalonian blood sausage or black Chinese rice.

However, what counts as exotic or authentic depends on the expertise of someone with first-class taste and loads of frequent flier miles.

So that homemade meatloaf gracing the cover of your favorite gourmet rag? Remember the discriminatory palette that put it there may be keeping the democratic upheaval at bay. W.L.

never mind the bollocks, do it yourself

Social scientists know punks resist mainstream culture via the subversive quality and shock value of their fashion and rituals. Ryan Moore, though, adds creating, writing, recording, and distributing independent music and publications to the list (Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, August 2007).

For three years Moore observed and interviewed producers of San Diego’s punk music and “fanzines”—low-cost, fan-produced publications about a specific cultural phenomenon. He found the punk scene infused with a “do-it-yourself ethic,” which discourages fans from being passive consumers and spectators and encourages them instead to form their own bands, create independent record labels, and publish or write for low-budget magazines and publications, and thus buck the corporate and industry arms they think are strangling their scene.

These activities, Moore suggests, have been neglected from the scholarly discussions of what constitutes resistance despite the fact that the products are outlets for creative expression, cultural participation, and help form a sense of community. The DIY ethic gives people with no great musical or writing skill (or commercial viability) the power to play the key roles in the creation and maintenance of punk culture—an act of resistance as meaningful as any treatise on the symbolic significance of guitar smashing and studded collars. K.C.

how i learned to stop worrying and love the military

Want to avoid a life of violent crime and improve your economic and social standing? Visit your local recruiter’s office.

Two works, one by Ivan Y. Sun and the other by Edward L. Kick, Byron Davis, and Jeffrey Kentor (both from Journal of Military and Political Sociology, Winter 2006), suggest military participation lowers both national homicide rates and inequality.

Looking at 96 countries Sun found that, although income inequality and unemployment are admittedly better predictors, countries with more military personnel have somewhat lower homicide rates. That’s because, the author says, soldiers largely are “young males in their crime-prone ages,” the military is a rigid standardized system, and the military has its own vernacular and system for building the “soldier’s identity.”

Kick, Davis, and Kentor analyzed data from 66 countries from 1970 to 1990 and found support for the classic argument that participation in the military reduces inequality. This is a result, they argue, of militaries’ integrative and egalitarian functions, which provide opportunities for upward mobility for “unskilled, uneducated, and unemployed” populations.

It seems, then, the value of the military experience goes beyond structure, discipline, and the G.I Bill. K.C.