Food, drink and hospitality: space, materiality, practice

Philosophical enquiry has enriched our understanding of hospitality – providing intellectual legitimacy to its study while broadening interest in the topic (Barnett 2005; Derrida 2001; Dikeç et al. 2009). However, this has led to abstract re-conceptualizations of hospitality and a tendency to use notions of hospitality to view relations at national, regional and city scales rather than at the level of everyday micro-geographies involving transactions of food and drink. Moreover, this body of work has tended to treat philosophical debates surrounding hospitality and society separately from commercial and non-domestic provision. Meanwhile, academics concerned with the business and management of hospitality have largely ignored philosophical debates and perspectives. Several studies have attempted to create links between abstract and more mundane, tangible conceptions of hospitality and between its social and commercial manifestations (Bell 2007; Germann-Molz and Gibson 2007; Lashley et al. 2007; Lugosi 2009; Lynch et al. 2011) and this themed issue seeks to build on this emerging body of work.