When Eating Becomes Collaborative: Co-Eating Examples from Children’s Mealtimes

As one of the most basic forms of sociality, eating together (or “commensality”) has been extensively researched across the social sciences. Interactional research, for instance, has demonstrated how commensality is collaboratively produced within and through moments of participation during shared mealtimes. In this article, I propose that there is a unique form of participation—“co-eating”—in which one person’s eating practices becomes a collaborative activity. Using examples from children’s mealtimes, co-eating is shown to be a means through which people scaffold, manage, or otherwise engage in the current eating practices of co-present others. The concept of co-eating provides an analytical resource through which researchers can empirically examine the granularity and fluidity of “eating together.” The article situates the argument within academic literature and empirical work on commensality before illustrating co-eating with examples from existing literature as well as data from a preschool lunch. Data are in Swedish, with English translation.