Children’s commensality: Participation and footing shifts in school mealtime interactions

In the paper, we present a qualitative analysis of the process of commensality from a child-centred perspective in the school mealtime. We draw on Goffman’s concepts of fame and footings to analyse children’s school mealtime interactions, illustrating how children achieve commensality, organising and collaborating one another to sit with their friends at a table and eat lunch together. Data are drawn from ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the first author in a primary school in Southwest England. The analysis addresses how children navigate unfolding social and material demands and co-create on-going plans of sitting together. Our findings reveal social organisation of commensality achieved by the children.