Dr Isabelle Darmon
Job Title
Lecturer in Sociology and Sustainable Development
Room number
6.27Building (Address)
Chrystal Macmillan BuildingStreet (Address)
15a George SquareCity (Address)
EdinburghCountry (Address)
UKPost code (Address)
EH8 9LDResearch interests
Research interests
Keywords: Dynamics of capitalism, Critical theory, Sociology of food, Sociology of music, Marx, Weber, Cultural Sociology, Environmental Sociology, Sociology of Sustainability.
I joined Edinburgh after a late PhD at the University of Manchester, and a turn in my professional life (I managed European research and evaluation projects in programmes against unemployment and social inequality for 15 years, and worked from Paris, London, and Barcelona).
Over the last 10 years, I have been working across cultural sociology, critical theory and sociology of global environment and sustainability. I am currently working on theorising social sustainability, relating it to the inequality-unsustainability nexus at the heart of capitalism, but also of capitalist transitions.
I am a convener of the Food Researchers In EDinburgh network (FRIED), and coordinator of the related European network in the Social Science of Food and Eating (Bridg'it), with the University of Copenhagen, Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Institute for Social Science Lisbon and Universität Giessen. The network is developing its collaboration on the social sustainability of food transitions (joint conference papers) and seeks to further foster and structure doctoral education and support (for example through annual staff/student workshops).
I am a co-PI on 2023-2027 project 'The Living Good Food Nation Lab', funded by the Wellcome Trust under Advancing climate mitigation policy solutions with health co-benefits in G7 countries. The aim of the project is to work with the Scottish government and local authorities, the new Scottish Food Commission, and the wider Scottish food community towards the transformation of the Scottish food system in the context of the initial rollout period (2023-2027) of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022.
Topics interested in supervising
Dynamics of capitalism, environmental sociology, cultural sociology, sociology of food.
If you are interested in being supervised by Isabelle Darmon, please see the links below (opening in new windows) for more information:
Background
Qualifications
- PhD in Sociology, University of Manchester
- MSc Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck College, University of London
- MA Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC Paris), France
PhD students
Current:
- Eric Yan: Food and Distinction in Contemporary Urban China: A Dispositionalist-Contextualist Exploration (with Marisa Wilson and Nick Prior)
- Llibert Mendez de Vigo: The Flag as a Tablecloth: Food practices as class performance by the new Spanish migrants in Edinburgh (with Ross Bond)
Completed:
- Sicheng Long: The Invention of Talent: Human Capital Valuation in Talent Assessment (with Angelica Thumala)
- Ming-Tse Hung (completed in 2023): What is ‘Real Food’? A Discourse Analysis of Food Education in Taiwan (with Steve Kemp)
- Lisa Howard (completed in 2023): Where ‘green’ parenting meets climate activism: Understanding the affective, political, generative, but challenging ‘space in-between’ of radical eco-parenting (with Lynn Jamieson)
- Shubhi Sharma (completed in 2022): Forest governance, Forest Dwelling People and Construction of Environmental Subjects: Case of REDD+ and Khasis in Meghalaya, India (with Radhika Govinda and Roger Jeffery)
- Yahti Mohammad Miharja (completed in 2020): Relocating Malays: Housing Biographies, the State and Multiracial Nationbuilding in Singapore. (with Liliana Riga)
- Chun-Ming Huang (completed in 2018): Taiwanese Popular Music in China. (with Nick Prior)
Topics interested in supervising
I would welcome proposals from research students with interests in dynamics of capitalism and environmental problems, critical theory, cultural sociology of food, music and the arts.
If you are interested in being supervised by Isabelle Darmon, please see the links below for more information:
- PhD in Sociology (opens in a new window)
Courses convened and taught
Sustainable Development 1A (course convened by Zeynep Oguz)
Sustainable Development 2A (I co-convene the course with Zoe Malcolm)
Sociology 2A (teaching unit on capitalism) (course convened by Gil Viry)
The Social Life of Food (convened by Dr Isabel Fletcher)
Global Environment and Society (postgrad, convening and teaching)
Works within
Staff Hours and Guidance
Office hours: Tuesdays 13:30-15:30 during term time. Please book yourself a 'slot' here, it makes life easier...
Publications by user content
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Darmon I. Forgotten flavours and the flavours of the forgotten: The ecological flavourscape in Scotland. The Scottish Historical Review. 2026 Aug;105(2):248-275. Epub 2026 Jul 9. doi: 10.3366/shr.2026.0772 |
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Darmon I, Dean W, Gojard S, Truninger M, Wilson M. The Social Sustainability of Food Systems: Addressing the Inequality-Unsustainability Nexus: Introduction to the Special Issue. Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies. 2026 Feb 1;106:473–483. Epub 2026 Jan 21. doi: 10.1007/s41130-025-00249-w |
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Carlile R, Darmon I, Blair K. The inequality/unsustainability nexus in agri-food transitions and transformations: A conceptual review. Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies. 2025 Nov 17. Epub 2025 Nov 17. doi: 10.1007/s41130-025-00246-z |
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Darmon I. Equality, not sufficiency! Critical theoretical perspectives on the inequality-unsustainability nexus. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. 2024 Jun 3;20(1):1-17. 2338588. doi: 10.1080/15487733.2024.2338588 |
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Vidal AD, Freudenberg C, Darmon I. The unequal university will never be sustainable 2022. |
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Darmon I. Of sound and flavour – Revisiting the notion of material for the cultural sociological analysis of art domains. Cultural Sociology. 2021 Sept 1;15(3):327-345. Epub 2020 Nov 11. doi: 10.1177/1749975520969603 |
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Darmon I. Cardon (Philippe), Depecker (Thomas), Plessz (Marie), Sociologie de l’alimentation. Paris, Armand Colin, 2019, 238 p., 25 €. Revue française de Sociologie. 2020 Oct;61(4):393-396. |
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Darmon I. Filantrocapitalismo contra lo público en tiempos de Covid-19. Cuadernos de Teoría Social . 2020 Sept 1;6(11):162-168. |
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Darmon I, Warde A. Habits and orders of everyday life: Commensal adjustment in Anglo-French couples. British Journal of Sociology. 2019 Jun;70(3):1025-1042. Epub 2018 Apr 17. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.12371 |
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Prior N, Darmon I, Mccormick L. Tracing, Making and Locating Cultural Sociology. Cultural Sociology. 2017 Jun 6;11(1):3-10. Epub 2017 Feb 15. doi: 10.1177/1749975516687486 |
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Darmon I, Frade C. Theatrical dialogue in teaching the classics. Journal of Classical Sociology. 2017 May 31;17(2):77-86. doi: 10.1177/1468795X17693435 |
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Darmon I, Warde A. Senses and sensibilities: stabilising and changing tastes in cross-national couples. Food, Culture & Society. 2016 Dec;705-722. Epub 2016 Oct 25. doi: 10.1080/15528014.2016.1243769 |
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Darmon I. Review of Julier, A. P. (2013). Eating together: Food, friendship, and inequality. Urbana : University of Illinois Press. Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies. 2016 Jun;1:67-69. Epub 2016 Apr 4. doi: 10.1007/s41130-016-0004-7 |
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Darmon I. Weber on music: Approaching music as a dynamic domain of action and experience. Cultural Sociology. 2015 Mar 1;9(1):20-37. Epub 2013 Nov 11. doi: 10.1177/1749975513511789 |
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Darmon I, (ed.), Warde A, (ed.). Explorations in cross-national comparison of food practices. Anthropology of Food. 2014 Dec 30;s10(2014). Epub 2014 Dec 30. |
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Darmon I, Warde A. Under pressure – learning from the culinary and alimentary practices of Anglo-French couples for cross-national comparison. Anthropology of Food. 2014 Dec 30;10. |
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Darmon I, Warde A. Introduction: towards dynamic comparative analysis. Anthropology of Food. 2014 Dec 30;10. |
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Darmon I, Warde A. Change in eating habits - The contribution of new local food infrastructures: The case of a French initiative: Le Champ Commun/Le Garde Manger – Augan, Morbihan. 2013 Jan. |
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Darmon I, Warde A. Change in eating habits - The contribution of new local food infrastructures: The case of a Scottish initiative: Community Food Moray, Morayshire. 2013 Jan. |
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Darmon I, Frade C. Beneath and Beyond the Fragments: The Charms of Simmel's Philosophical Path for Contemporary Subjectivities. Theory, Culture & Society. 2012;29(7-8):197-217. doi: 10.1177/0263276411435572 |
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Darmon I. No 'New Spirit'? Max Weber's Account of the Dynamic of Contemporary Capitalism Through 'Pure Adaptation' and the Shaping of Adequate Subjects. Max Weber Studies. 2011 Jul;11(2):193-216. |
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Darmon I, Perez C. 'Conduct of Conduct' or the Shaping of 'Adequate Dispositions'? Labour Market and Career Guidance in Four European Countries. Critical Social Policy. 2011;31(1):77-101. doi: 10.1177/0261018310385440 |
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Darmon I. Max Weber's science of reality. Types of human being and the possibility of life conduct in contemporary culture. 2011. 278 p. |
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