Social varieties of eating out: evidence from Santiago and Paris

This article reveals social varieties of eating out through a comparison of the metropolises of Santiago (Chile) and Paris (France). Building on recent scholarship, we move beyond dichotomies of work vs. leisure and domesticity vs. commodification by generating a typology that integrates spatial, social, and temporal dimensions. Operationally, the spatial dimension corresponds to eating places, the social dimension to commensality (eating with others), and the temporal dimension to meal synchronization (eating on a socially shared schedule). Furthermore, we seek to document sociodemographic correlates of eating out and to advance comparative scholarship in food studies by including the Global South. We use representative, population-based survey data with information on weekday meal patterns and conduct latent class analyses. First, we describe differences between Santiago and Paris regarding places, commensality, and synchronization. Second, we map out varieties of eating in and eating out. Third, we identify three sociodemographic factors as significant, strong predictors of weekday eating out in both metropolises: young age, employment, and higher education. Our findings point to a twofold diversity of practice: (1) conventional and occasional, familial and friendly, and distinguishing older people; (2) driven by convenience, shared with a wider variety of people, and distinguishing younger people.