‘Where the magic happens’: the immense sociological significance of a shared lunchtime meal as a tool for developing sociability amongst criminal justice-affected people

This chapter discusses the role of commensality as it is practised at LandWorks (LW), an award-winning, independent charity that works with criminal justice-affected people. LW offers six-to-twelve-month work placements to serving prisoners, former prisoners and/or those at risk of going to prison. People on placement are referred to as ‘trainees’, and those who have successfully completed a placement are ‘graduates’. The chapter draws upon over ten years of interview data from trainees and graduates, with a specific focus on the role of the shared lunchtime meal. This can represent a challenge to trainees, some of whom have never eaten around a table or with others before. This chapter suggests that there needs to be an alternative understanding of commensality, referring specifically to George Simmel’s The Sociology of the Meal (1994 [1910]), and the translation by Michael Symons (1994).