Food, Wine and Culture - 2012 entry

Course content

The modules taught in Oxford are:

• Food and Wine: the Cultural Context (7-10 day block)
• The Business of Food and Wine Consumption (7-10 day block)
• The Politics of Food
• Contemporary Issues
• Research Methods
• Dissertation

The modules taught in Dijon are:

• The Wine Product (7-10 day block)
• Food, Wine and Culture in Burgundy (7-10 day block)

You can view the course structure here.

As our courses are reviewed regularly, course content and module choices may change from those currently listed in the course entry.

Food and Wine: The Cultural Context
In this module students explore complex relationships between food and wine, and individuals and society. They analyse social conditions that shape these relationships and examine their consequences, not only for health, but also for the environment, the distinctiveness of cultures, and the cohesiveness of communities. The module focuses on specific aspects of social conditioning, including social class, cultural homogenisation, media (literature, film and television), fashion and ethics, to explain the emergence of dominant patterns of food and wine production, supply and consumption. A combination of theoretical enquiry and practical insight is used to reveal aspects of consumer behaviour, with specific reference to trends in taste, including preferences for products that are environmentally and culturally sustainable; food and wine tourism; the growth in reliance on standardised and processed products; and the use of restaurants and bars as theatres for conspicuous consumption and the display of adopted lifestyles.

The Wine Product
This module will provide students with a deep understanding of the principal wines of the world and their historical/commercial importance in the global marketplace. Students will develop an understanding of how wine relates to culture, starting from the consumer's various perspectives on wine, including social and personal dimensions. The module then progresses from cultivation of the vine, through to the vinification process, and then the diverse characteristics of the finished product. Case studies will be used to illustrate the differences in style and perception across global markets through to the unique appeals of a wine from one vineyard compared to the next. The module traverses the issues associated with production, legislation and health as well as culture.

The Business of Food and Wine Consumption
This module will provide students with a theoretical understanding of the inter-relationship between strategic business decision making; elements of the extended marketing mix; the role of tourism within wine and food businesses; and the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within those industries. Through contemporary case studies, students will explore the issues and challenges of developing and implementing marketing strategy for food and wine. Specialist knowledge will be developed through the critical application of theory to practice by the in-depth analysis of recognised cases of successful and failing practices.

Contemporary Issues
This module enables students to develop a specialism in a particular discipline related to food, wine and culture. Whichever area of specialism a student chooses to pursue, this module will involve students in independently researching a contemporary thematic area, critically analysing theoretical models and literature to develop a series of analytical bibliographies, and developing an academic paper. In undertaking this module students will work on their own, using the resource pack provided as guidance and with support from a designated expert (tutor) in the chosen specialism. This is a resource-based module which contains no formal lectures. Students can have either a Dijon or an Oxford-based tutor for this module.

The Politics of Food
This module seeks to provide students with a critical understanding of the relationship between food and politics and how this relationship plays out in terms of the price and availability of food and the range of foodstuffs that are available. It will enable students to explore the complex relationships between the hospitality industry and its food suppliers. Development of such understanding will be firmly rooted in an over-arching theoretical context, incorporating contemporary thinking from a wide range of perspectives. This module will demonstrate how macro decision making can have a considerable impact throughout the food production chain.

Food, Wine and Culture in Burgundy
This module will provide students with a profound understanding of and expertise in the relationship between culture, history, food and wine in Burgundy. The module will integrate theoretical and practical dimensions including the analysis of wine representation in literature, poetry, painting and the film industry; the study of climate in Burgundy; the study of local food produce; the analysis of Burgundy Grands Crus and how they position themselves in a luxury context. Applied exercises will be carried out in evening sessions. There will be a visit to the Paul Bocuse Institute, where experiments on wine consumer behaviour will be conducted, and a data collection exercise will be based on the visit to various Burgundy vineyards.

Research Methods provides you with an introduction to research methods so that you are aware of the approaches, methodologies and resources available for your dissertation. You will design a research project that ensures that you generate the information required to write the dissertation.

The Dissertation develops your ability to critically review literature, to identify the gaps in knowledge and practise relevant research skills to facilitate data collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation and writing. The 20,000 word dissertation provides you with the opportunity to investigate in depth a food and wine topic of your choice, working independently and supervised by a specialist tutor. The topic can be the same as in your Contemporary Issues module, or in a different area. Dissertation field work can be undertaken in France, the UK or other countries.

It is available full-time and part-time and is suitable for those with an interest in food and wine, those working in food and wine professions, those with relevant work experience and those who aspire to careers in this exciting field.

After completion of this programme some students may choose an academic career by studying for a PhD.

• for information about the part-time mode, see part-time PDF
• for information about the sandwich mode, see sandwich PDF.

As our courses are reviewed regularly, course content and module choices may change from those listed in the course entry.

Faculty

Faculty of Business

Department

The Oxford School of Hospitality Management

Course length

Full-time: 12 months
Part-time: 36 months

Teaching location

Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane / Burgundy School of Business, Dijon

Start date

September 2012

UKPASS code

041937

Entry requirements

• A minimum of a good second-class honours degree or equivalent overseas degree from a recognised institute.
• An interview with the Programme Director (either face-to-face or by telephone).
• A 1,000-word personal statement written by the applicant; the personal statement should explain the applicant’s background and their interest in food, wine and culture.

Scholarships and funding

For general sources of financial support, see:

• funding for students from the UK and EU
• funding for students from outside the EU

Why Oxford is a great place to study Food, Wine and Culture

Our students tell us they enjoy living in Oxford due to the small-city scale, the wonderful historic buildings, and the vibrant and multicultural student atmosphere. As a master's student you can benefit from the hospitality and tourism learning opportunities provided within Oxford – for example, the renovated Ashmolean Museum, Britain's oldest public museum; hotels such as the Old Bank, Malmaison and Randolph; historic pubs and ethnic restaurants. We sometimes visit these businesses and their managers talk to our students about the practice and realities of hospitality and tourism management.

In addition to the Oxford Brookes University library, students have access to Oxford University's Bodleian Library, which is an excellent resource for the dissertation.
 

Support for students studying Food, Wine and Culture

Students are provided with strong support mechanisms to help them in their demanding study schedule. Help and advice for students is provided by the Programme Director, module leaders, individual tutors, dissertation tutors and the Oxford School of Hospitality Management administrators. The school’s careers and work placement office is in close contact with hospitality and tourism employers to help students with careers and work placement advice. 

How Brookes supports postgraduate students

Supporting your learning

From academic advisers and support co-ordinators to specialist subject librarians and other learning support staff, we want to ensure that you get the best out of your studies.

Personal support services

We want your time at Brookes to be as enjoyable and successful as possible. That's why we provide all the facilities you need to be relaxed, happy and healthy throughout your studies.

Departmental research highlights

The Oxford School of Hospitality Management is ranked number one in Europe for hospitality research, and top in the world for research productivity (Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, March 2011). 

Research areas and clusters

Graduates from these master's programmes have conducted doctoral research in the following fields:

Strategy implementation in hotel companies; International expansion in a hotel company; The influence of national culture on staff appraisal techniques; Measurement of customer satisfaction in branded hotels; Conceptual development of a customer profitability analysis model for individual hotel properties; Strategy making in hotels; Political risk and the affect on international hotel expansion decision making; The historic strategic development of four hotel companies in the UK, 1979-2004; The influence of environmental management practices on hotel profitability: short-term versus long-term perspectives; Determinants of risk appetite: Insights from international hotel companies; Corporate Image Formation through Public Relations in hotel corporations.

Creating shared meaning in sustainable tourism: the use of semiotics; Development of a performance measurement framework for hallmark events; A complexity approach to the measurement of affiliate marketing effectiveness in tourism; Authenticity in place branding; A stakeholder approach to implementing sustainable development in tourism.