Sustainable Lives: Food Choices as Politics and Lifestyle
Photo: Anurag Arora on Unsplash
|
Title of the research project Sustainable Lives: |
|
|
Researchers Prof. Dr. Michael Brüggemann (Sprecher) Faculties / Departments Faculty of Humanities (Language, Literature and Media I; German Philology), |
Contact Prof. Dr. Michael BrüggemannTel.: +49 40 42838-7128 E-Mail: michael.brueggemann"AT"uni-hamburg.de Universität Hamburg Journalistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft Allende Platz 1 20146 Hamburg |
Background of the project
Climate change and other environmental and social problems are increasingly bringing the unsustainability of our current lifestyles to the fore. Our research focusses on food choices as a case study of leading a more or less sustainable lifestyle. In comparison to other areas of human behavior, nutrition accounts for a high share of each person’s environmental impact. While experts and activists may, by and large, agree that eating less meat, more plants from more local, organic and fair production, wrapped in less plastic, and bought in portions that can actually be consumed rather than thrown away, would be a step towards a more sustainable way of life, this knowledge does not automatically translate into more sustainable behavior. In some countries and some sociocultural contexts, food choices may be changing, while, particularly in some emerging economies, it seems unclear whether we are heading towards more sustainable ways of life.
Objective
In this collaborative research endeavor, we will investigate the drivers of food choices and how changing discourses, norms and attitudes about food relate to actual patterns of food consumption. This question can only be tackled in a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach that looks at both, discourses about food and the everyday practices of food consumption.
Research question: What drives food choices and how are they influenced by ideas and discourses related to more sustainable lifestyles?
The funding through the KNU will help us to assess the state of research across disciplines, conduct exploratory case studies and develop a proposal for exploring the issue in more depth.
Partners
Wouter Poortinga, Cardiff University (School of Psychology, Professor of Environmental Psychology)
Mike Goodman, University of Reading (Professor of Environment and Development / Human Geography)
Denis Hilton, University of Toulouse-II (Professor of Social Psychology)
Luca Panzone, Newcastle University, UK (School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour)
Anna R. Davis, Trinity College Dublin, IRL (Director of the Environmental Governance Research Group, Professor of Geography)
Lotte Holm, University of Copenhagen, DK (Professor in the Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), Section for Consumption, Bioethics and Governance)
News
Lecture series “Sustainable Lives” (PDF), with international guests, April - November 2019
2nd Flyer with first results (PDF), in german, May 2019
Flyer with first results (PDF), in german, February 2019
"Essen für den Erhalt der Erde", article in the UHH newsroom, 10th October 2018