Food, Cosmopolitanism, and Stratification—A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT This scoping review maps and assesses the empirical literature (2014–2024) on cosmopolitan food consumption and its role in social distinction. Drawing on a synthesis of 30 peer‐reviewed articles using the PRISMA‐ScR protocol, the review identifies a central contradiction between the rhetoric of “openness” and inclusivity in globalized food practices and their actual function as strategic adaptations for the maintenance of elite distinction. The findings reveal a qualitative shift in the mechanisms of stratification, where distinction has migrated from the food object itself to a refined “meta‐taste”—a discursive strategy of appraisal rooted in analytical reflexivity and performative competence. The review further identifies a theoretical lag within the field, where a heavy reliance on the Bourdieuian tradition risks overinterpreting consumption as a purely static possession. This conceptual focus sustains two substantive deficiencies: first, the neglect of material capital, which sidelines the economic rationalities and structural constraints that define food access; and second, a persistent Western‐centricity that projects a universal cosmopolitan trajectory onto decontextualized global foodways. In response, a critical research agenda is proposed to decentre the dominant Bourdieuian paradigm by expanding geographical and intersectional scopes, integrating materialist perspectives to bridge the symbolic‐structural divide, and developing methodological tools capable of measuring discursive capital over material acquisition. This review provides a timely re‐evaluation of how distinction is performed and maintained within increasingly discursive global foodways, advancing a more inclusive sociology of food that bridges the disconnect between symbolic performance and material reality.